2,200 foreign visitors stranded on Vietnam's biggest island due to typhoon

HO CHI MINH CITY -- Over 4,000 visitors, including nearly 2,200 foreigners have been stranded on Phu Quoc, Vietnam's biggest island, in southern Kien Giang province as flights and ships were canceled to avoid Typhoon Tembin, Central Vietnam Television (VTV) reported on Tuesday.

The typhoon has weakened into a tropical depression, said the report.

Tembin has caused heavy rain in some southern provinces, including Kien Giang, Ca Mau and Bac Lieu. Earlier, anticipating it would land in the provinces, local authorities have organized evacuation of nearly 1 million people, and temporarily closed schools on Monday and Tuesday.

Vietnam's southern region rarely faces typhoons, but when it does, big losses are reported. Typhoon Linda hit the region in 1997, killing or leaving 3,000 people missing.

Damrey, the strongest typhoon hitting Vietnam in more than a decade, and subsequent floods in November, killed or left 123 people in the country's central region missing, injured hundreds of others, and caused losses of some $1 billion.