Students wade through a flooded street in the central province of Quang Nam, Vietnam on Saturday 03 Nov 2007

Vietnamese officials say floods have killed at least 77 people in central Vietnam since late last month, and now a new typhoon is approaching.

Typhoon Peipah is working its way across the South China Sea and is expected to dump heavy rains on Vietnam's central provinces as early as Friday.

Since late October, heavy rains have ravaged parts of central Vietnam, damaging rice crops and forcing schools to close.  State media say at least one million people in the region are facing shortages of clean water and food.

In early October, Typhoon Lekima killed nearly 100 people in the same region.

Peipah passed over the northern tip of the Philippines on Monday, flooding towns and killing at least five people.

Floods and storms kill hundreds of people each year in Vietnam.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.