Vietnamese citizens living in the Philippines, where more than 1,740 people died due to super typhoon Haiyan last week, can now use the telephone hotline set up by the Vietnamese Embassy to seek help in emergencies, the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry reported.

>> UN to launch major aid appeal for battered Philippines >> Storm Haiyan leaves 14 dead, 81 injured in Vietnam The hotline number is +00639982756666, the ministry said, adding that there are no reports about Vietnamese casualties due to the typhoon in the island country.   The Embassy has also set up a working team to contact representatives of Vietnamese communities in the Philippines to update information regarding Vietnamese citizens after the disaster. The team’s members will coordinate with local authorities to provide support to Vietnamese people who are victims of the typhoon. There are about 1,000 Vietnamese living in different localities in the island country, but their large communities are in Palawan, Manila, Batangas, Luzon, and Cebu.  By yesterday night, the ministry said it had received no reports about deaths among Vietnamese people during the typhoon’s landfall in the island country on November 8. However, the embassy said, many in the community of about 100 Vietnamese people in Tacloban city, Leyte province, in central Philippines, are suffering from the typhoon’s aftermath and need to be supported as soon as possible. The Embassy said it has sent staff to the area to visit and offer support to those in need. As reported by the Philippine authorities, the death toll due to the typhoon was 1,744 by yesterday evening. In an interview with CNN Tuesday, President Benigno Aquino III said that the previous estimate that Typhoon Haiyan killed 10,000 people in the Philippines is "too much." “The death toll is likely closer to 2,000 or 2,500,” he said.