HANOI (Reuters) - The death toll rose to 280 on Thursday in prolonged floods in Vietnam's Mekong Delta and state media warned of new hazards -- cholera and crocodiles swimming downriver from Cambodia.
Local officials also warned that high sea tides next week would worsen the misery caused by the worst floods in decades, by raising water levels in downstream provinces.
''We will need more help as the situation in the province is expected to get worse by mid-October,'' said an official in the downstream province of Can Tho.
There have been 211 children among the 280 people killed by the floods in the low-lying Delta in the past month.
The International Red Cross estimates four million people have been affected in eight Delta provinces.
It says up to 35,000 families, or some 175,000 people, have had to be evacuated from homes in the Delta since the worst of the floods early this month and 150,000 more are critically in need of assistance.
Thursday's Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper quoted Doan Hong, director of the health department of Dong Thap province, as saying there had been outbreaks of cholera in Laos and neighboring Cambodia, and the disease was spreading down the swollen Mekong River toward Vietnam.
He said this raised the risk of outbreaks in the Delta.
Crocodile Hazard
The paper also warned of another hazard after a fisherman caught a 25-kg (55-lb) crocodile in the Hau River, a tributary of the giant Mekong in An Giang province.
Tuoi Tre said a number of crocodiles had been seen in the Hau River and were thought to have migrated from Cambodia.
Flood waters have receded steadily in the upstream Delta in the past week but it is likely to be late November before they subside fully and concerns have risen about water-borne diseases like cholera and dengue.
The high sea tides are likely to slow the process by preventing drainage out to sea, officials said.
Municipal officials said torrential rains and strong winds in the past few days had damaged dozens of houses in Tien Giang province, where more than 11,800 families, or about 60,000 people, are in need of emergency relief.
About $2 million of international relief has been pledged and a U.N. team is touring the Delta to assess further needs.
Domestic and international relief agencies have been distributing rice supplies, medicines and drinking water and the Royal Australian Air Force plans to airlift blankets on Sunday.
A dissident Buddhist monk has vowed to attempt his own aid distribution on Friday, complaining that the government has tried to block his church's relief supplies.
The Venerable Thich Quang Do, deputy head of the outlawed United Buddhist Church of Vietnam, was jailed for attempting a similar mission in 1994. He is unlikely to be allowed to leave his heavily-policed monastery this time.
On Wednesday the Foreign Ministry said Do should stick to rules requiring aid to be channeled via three organizations -- the Vietnamese Red Cross, the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front -- the ruling Communist Party's mass movement organization -- and the Finance Ministry's aid committee.