HANOI, November 18 (RIA Novosti) - Five people have been killed in a tropical storm that hit the southern Vietnamese coast, a flood control spokesman said on Tuesday.

Storm Noul (meaning Red Sky in Korean), the tenth to hit the country this year, also sunk over 100 boats as it battered the coast on Monday. With winds raging at speeds of up to 80 km p/h (50 mph), the storm caused numerous flash floods and landslides in at least 10 provinces, forcing the evacuation of about 90,000 people from coastal areas.

A total of 24 fishing vessels with 216 crew members have still not made contact as the storm weakened to a tropical depression and moved across central regions of the country.

With the typhoon moving westwards at speeds of around 37 km p/h (23 mph), water levels in dozens of rivers exceeded flood warning levels, inundating about 3,000 hectares of crops in the coastal provinces of Phu Yen, Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan.

The Vietnamese capital Hanoi has been particularly badly hit after suffering its worst flooding in decades in recent weeks following unusually heavy rains, which have killed over 80 people, destroyed 180,000 homes and 245,000 hectares of crops.

Provinces unaffected by the storm have urged locals to harvest their crops as soon as possible and to prepare for an emergency as the storm season in the country continues.