HANOI, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Flooding caused by torrential rain in Vietnam's central region killed 45 local people, left 7 missing, and injured 61 others on Nov. 10-15, local newspaper Youth reported Friday.

    Quang Nam province suffered the biggest human loss with 20 fatalities, Quang Ngai province, 10, Binh Dinh province, 6, and Thua Thien Hue province, 4.

    The floods also inundated some 376,000 houses, damaged over 2,500 hectares of paddy rice, and isolated some areas in the region, causing total property losses of trillions of Vietnamese dong (VND)(hundreds of million U.S. dollars).

    The region may face a new wave of flooding, after a spell of torrential rain is forecast to occur there on Nov. 16-25, according to the National Hydro-Meteorology Forecast Center.

    Natural disasters including typhoons and hails in Vietnam killed 339 people, left 274 persons missing, and injured 2,065 others in 2006. The estimated losses totaled 18.6 trillion Vietnamese dong (nearly 1.2 billion U.S. dollars) in the year.