People ride motorcycles as haze shrouds the street in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan province, Indonesia October 27, 2015 in this picture taken by Antara Foto.  [Photo/Agencies]

UNITED NATIONS - The Asia Pacific is the world's most disaster prone region and needs regional cooperation to address cross boundary disasters, said a UN expert here Tuesday.

"Asia (has) particularly high vulnerability to multiple hazards not least because of the ring of fire - and the volcanic and earthquake activity along it - but also because of the path of tropical typhoons," said David O'Connor, chief of the policy and analysis branch of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), at the launch of Disasters Without Borders the 2015 Asia Pacific Disaster Report.

Ninety percent of the world's seismic activity originates in the ring of fire, a region in the basin of the Pacific Ocean, said O'Connor.

Other disasters affecting the region include floods, tropical storms and droughts, which O'Connor described as a silent killer.

He said China was also vulnerable to both earthquakes and tropical storms.

"China ...has suffered both from tropical storms in recent years but also from earthquakes that have devastated large cities and parts of China," he said.