Disaster officials say floods in central Vietnam killed at least 18 people over the weekend, raising the death toll from flooding in November to 69.

The latest floods are the fifth round to strike the central region since early October, submerging large areas.

Six people died in Binh Dinh province, where disaster officials say many telephone and electrical services were knocked out and about 800,000 people were living in flooded areas. Floods killed 12 people in five other central provinces.

In one area, flooding washed hundreds of crocodiles from a state-owned farm that held 5,000 of them. Soldiers, militiamen and forest rangers are hunting the animals.

Using AK-47 assault rifles, soldiers are reported to have shot and killed 11 crocodiles as they crawled up a river bank toward nearby villages. Crocodiles are farmed in Vietnam and other Asian countries for their skin and meat.

At Monday's count, typhoons and floods have killed 211 people since early October in central and northern Vietnam.