Damrey was downgraded to a tropical depression as wind speeds dropped to just 38 kilometres (23 miles) per hour from a high of around 200 kilometres per hour, according to the Hong Kong Observatory.

The storm killed 36 people in Vietnam, 16 in the Philippines, 16 in southern China and three in Thailand, where it caused widespread flooding in the north. Five people have been reported missing there.

Late Wednesday, Vietnam Television (VTV) reported 32 deaths in the northern province of Yen Bai in flash floods sparked by the typhoon. Two deaths each were reported earlier in the provinces of Nam Dinh and Thanh Hoa.

"The flooding occurred all of a sudden, we were so frightened that we left our property and fled," a Yen Bai resident told the television. "The waters rose extremely quickly."

In Kathmandu, police and rescue workers said they feared the death toll from landslides triggered by floods in western Nepal may rise higher than the current 51.

"The death toll from landslides late Monday has risen to 49" in far western Nepal, a senior police officer told AFP, adding that two other people died in a landslide late Monday in the same remote region.

The police officer said emergency workers feared the death toll could be higher but had been unable to reach the sites of the landslides.

The landslides were triggered by several days of heavy rain at the end of South Asia's monsoon season.

In Vietnam, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai was shown on VTV telling an emergency meeting that the greatest priority was to reinforce the network of dykes that had been breached.

"At the same time we have to encourage the social organisations and local authorities to help people restore their livelihood," he said.

A central weather official said earlier that the typhoon, which he described as the most violent to hit Vietnam in a decade, caused damage worth tens of millions of dollars.

"Tens of thousands of hectares of agricultural land as well as major infrastructures such as roads, bridges and dykes, electricity supply network and telecommunications have been damaged and some boats are missing," he said.

"People still have to remain in churches, schools and public buildings," said a flood control official in the northern province of Nam Dinh.

Nguyen Van Hung, a 72-year-old farmer in Nam Dinh, said it was the biggest storm in memory.

"It was lucky that the authorities forced us to evacuate to churches and schools before the storm arrived. Now, we will be hungry as we have lost all our crops," Hung said.

In the adjoining province of Ninh Binh, flood control official Vu Kim Khoi said many farmers faced ruin after losing their crops and animals. "They'll need state help for weeks before they can resume cultivation," he said.

About 300,000 people were evacuated from Vietnam's coastal regions, where extensive networks of dykes were breached.

The storm weakened as it crossed into Laos, encountering the Annamite chain of mountains, said foreign ministry spokesman Yong Chanthalangsy in Vientiane.

"There is no major damage to our country. No casualty, no death has been reported," he said.

In China the civil affairs ministry said the storm had caused nearly 8.5 billion yuan (1.05 billion dollars) in damage in Hainan, Guangdong and Guangxi provinces as of Monday night, while 436,000 people had been evacuated.

Hainan Vice Governor Wu Changyuan said 20,000 homes had been flattened on the island province, while 380 kilometers of roads had been damaged and 704,000 hectares (1.74 million acres) of cropland ruined, Xinhua news agency said.

Xinhua put economic losses at 10 billion yuan.

In the Philippines the storm displaced more than 8,000 people from nine towns and cities in the Bicol peninsula southeast of Manila. Several hundred hectares of farmland were flooded.

Asia is prone to tropical storms and typhoons, two of which caused widespread destruction in China and killed scores of people earlier this month.

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