HANOI, July 22 ― Extreme weather caused by Typhoon Rammasun has killed 27 people in Vietnam, with the storm unleashing flash floods, landslides and lightning strikes, authorities said today.

Heavy rain flooded 7,200 houses and 4,200 hectares (10,300 acres) of cropland, with the north of the country worst hit, the national flood and storm control committee said.

The cost of the damage was estimated at around US$6 million (RM19 million).

Rammasun ― meaning “Thunder God” in Thai ― had earlier barrelled through the Philippines and then hit southern China, killing more than 100 people and wrecking over 111,000 homes.

It was the most powerful storm to strike China's southern areas since 1973, the country's National Meteorological Center said, and brought torrential rains.

The typhoon then weakened into a low-pressure area as it tracked along the China-Vietnam border.

In 2013 Vietnam was hit by 15 storms including Typhoon Haiyan, which killed 313 people and caused an estimated US$1.4 billion worth of damage, according to the authorities. ― AFP