“I took a big breath, swam through a passage, plunged and then went up. I even shouted for help and I was pulled to a boat by soldiers on board,” a 10 -year -old child told Vietnamnet’s media.
Rescue operations continue during the night to try to find the eight people who were still missing.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh presented his condolences on Saturday evening to the families of the victims and called for the ministries of defense and public security to carry out research and rescue operations urgently.
The authorities “will investigate and clarify the cause of the incident and be careful” this accident, said a statement published on the government’s website.
“Big clips like toes”
“The sky has darkened around 2 p.m.,” a resident of Halong’s bay. “There were big hailstones like toes, accompanied by torrential rains, thunderstorms and lightning”.
Torrential rains also fell on Saturday in northern Hanoi, in the provinces of Thai Nguyen and Bac Ninh.
In Hanoi, the capital, several trees were torn off by strong winds.
This storm follows three days of intense heat, with temperatures reaching 37 degrees in certain regions.
May Van Khiem, director of the National Center for Hydrometeorological Forecasts, told VNEXPRESS that thunderstorms in northern Vietnam were not caused by the influence of the Wipha tropical storm in the southern China Sea.
The Halong Bay, visited by millions of people each year, is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Vietnam, renowned for its blue-green waters and limestone islands decorated with tropical forests.
In 2024, 30 ships sank in the coastal province of Quang Ninh, along Halong Bay, after being affected by Typhon Yagi.
At the beginning of July, a ferry sank off the tourist island of Bali in Indonesia, killing 18 people.
