In Pictures: Ferocious Typhoon Molave smashes through Vietnam

Typhoon Molave set off landslides that killed at least 19 people and left 45 missing in central Vietnam, where ferocious wind and rain blew away roofs and knocked out power in a region of 1.7 million residents, state media said on Thursday.

The casualties from the landslides bring the overall death toll from the storm to at least 35, including 12 fishermen whose boats sank on Wednesday as the typhoon approached with winds of up to 150km per hour (93mph). Vietnamese officials say it is the worst typhoon to hit the country in 20 years.

At least 59 people remain missing in the landslides and at sea. The casualties may rise with many regions still unable to report details of the devastation amid the stormy weather.

At the site of one landslide that buried a village of 53 people, rescue workers pulled 33 survivors from the mud, the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported.

“The whole village was flattened,” Ho Thi Ha, who lost her father in the landslide, told Tuoi Tre. “There’s nothing left.”