Hanoi  - Broken dykes due to high tides have caused the flooding of more than 400 houses in Ho Chi Minh City, a disaster official said Monday.

"The latest broken section of dyke was breached at about 4 am today, flooding more than 100 houses," said Mai Tuan Binh, head of an irrigation unit in the Thu Duc district of Vietnam's largest city.

Binh said the 5-metre break in the dyke resulted in the flooding of houses in 20 to 80 centimetres of water, destroying furniture, refrigerators, and several dozen acres of decorative plants and vegetables.

The flooding disrupted traffic across Thu Duc District.

"This was the highest tide in the past 50 years in Ho Chi Minh City," said Binh. He blamed the high tides on rising sea levels due to climate change.

The local government had not yet finished repairing the dyke as of noon Monday.

Another dike in Thu Duc district failed at 3 am Sunday, flooding more than 300 houses and several hectares of crops in up to 1.3 metres of water.

Vietnam's Southern Hydro-Meteorological Centre had forecast high tides of up to 1.5 metres above sea level on Monday.

Local media Monday reported that hide tides and waves destroyed 22 houses in the city of Phan Thiet in southern Vietnam over the weekend.

The city's Committee for Storm and Flood Control said tides had plunged some areas under 5 meters of water, threatening hundreds of families. Some locals blamed the collapse on construction of a new port, which they said had changed water currents and caused erosion.

Vietnam is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change.

Much of the Mekong and Red River deltas, the country's most populated areas, lie just above sea level. Forecasts show that a sea level rise of 1 metre, considered moderately likely by the end of the century, would lead Vietnam to lose more than 12 per cent of its land, home to 23 per cent of its people. (dpa)