
"It took only a few seconds": survivors recount how a sudden storm drowned dozens in Vietnam
HALONG (Reuters) -The thunderstorm came so suddenly that it overturned the boat within seconds, said two survivors of the shipwreck which killed at least 35 people in Vietnam's top tourist spot of Halong Bay and left another four missing.
"It had been raining for 15 minutes, then there was a thunderstorm ... and a huge wave that all of a sudden capsized the boat," said Nguyen Hong Quan, one of 10 survivors of the accident, which happened early on Saturday afternoon.
"It took only a few seconds," he told Reuters on Monday, recalling one of the worst accidents in recent years to hit the UNESCO-protected archipelago, which consists of thousands of limestone islands about 200 km (125 miles) northeast of Hanoi.
Of the 49 people that Vietnam's government said were on the boat, four are still missing. Weather conditions are expected to worsen in the coming hours with the landfall in northern Vietnam of Typhoon Wipha, which skirted the southern Chinese coast over the weekend causing flash floods and landslides.
Authorities were verifying on Monday whether a body found on an islet in the bay was one of the missing people from the accident, according to local media.
The thunderstorm hit large parts of northern Vietnam on Saturday, turning the sky dark in a matter of minutes, with sudden downpours and strong winds felling trees in the capital of Hanoi and temporarily disrupting air travel at the Noi Bai international airport.
Quan, a 40-year-old tourist, said he drifted for about three hours on a wooden chair from the sunken boat before a fishing vessel finally rescued him.
Hanging on the chair together with him were another two people, only one of whom survived.
"One of them was too tired and couldn't hold any longer. What a tragedy," he said.
His account matches that from the second person who survived by holding onto the chair.
"The waves were so strong. One of the other two was too tired and said goodbye to us," Vu Anh Tu, a 25-year-old member of the crew, told Reuters.
He also recalled how the storm hit the boat so suddenly, causing it to overturn "in 15 seconds".
"There was so much loss, including children," he said, confirming reports from authorities that several minors were also on the sunken vessel.
"I don't know if I'll ever work on a boat again," Tu said.
(Reporting by Thinh Nguyen in Halong; Additional reporting by Khanh Vu and Phuong Nguyen in Hanoi; Writing by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by David Stanway)

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Star
36 minutes ago
- The Star
Philippine cyclones death toll rises to 30, seven missing
MANILA: (Bernama-Xinhua) At least 30 Filipinos are now known to have died in the southwest monsoon enhanced by three tropical cyclones that triggered flash floods and landslides in the Philippines since last week, Xinhua reported, quoting a Philippine government agency on Saturday (July 26). In a report, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) reported that seven others are missing, either swept away by flash floods or buried in landslides. It added that the massive flooding and landslides also resulted in 10 injuries. The agency reported that it validated 13 of the 30 fatalities. The NDRRMC reported that over 1.46 million families, or approximately 5.30 million people, were affected nationwide. The Office of Civil Defence reported that 88 cities and municipalities have declared a state of calamity to expedite emergency response efforts and facilitate access to necessary resources. Typhoon Wipha, Francisco, and Co-May have exited the Philippines, but the state weather bureau warned Saturday that the southwest monsoon is expected to dump more rain in the coming days in parts of Luzon Island. An average of 20 typhoons lash the Philippines yearly. - Bernama-Xinhua


Malaysian Reserve
2 hours ago
- Malaysian Reserve
Philippine cyclones death toll rises to 30, 7 missing
MANILA — At least 30 Filipinos are now known to have died in the southwest monsoon enhanced by three tropical cyclones that triggered flash floods and landslides in the Philippines since last week, Xinhua reported, quoting a Philippine government agency on Saturday. In a report, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) reported that seven others are missing, either swept away by flash floods or buried in landslides. It added that the massive flooding and landslides also resulted in 10 injuries. The agency reported that it validated 13 of the 30 fatalities. The NDRRMC reported that over 1.46 million families, or approximately 5.30 million people, were affected nationwide. The Office of Civil Defence reported that 88 cities and municipalities have declared a state of calamity to expedite emergency response efforts and facilitate access to necessary resources. Typhoon Wipha, Francisco, and Co-May have exited the Philippines, but the state weather bureau warned Saturday that the southwest monsoon is expected to dump more rain in the coming days in parts of Luzon Island. An average of 20 typhoons lash the Philippines yearly. — BERNAMA-XINHUA


The Star
3 hours ago
- The Star
Typhoons ‘Crising,' ‘Dante,' and tropical storm ‘Emong' combined death toll at 26 in Philippines
MANILA: Tropical Storm 'Emong' (international name: Co-may) made its way to the northern tip of the country on Friday (July 25) but its impact, combined with the enhanced southwest monsoon and the successive Typhoons 'Crising' (Wipha) and 'Dante' (Francisco) this week, left a trail of destruction in many parts of Luzon where at least 26 deaths were reported. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) on Friday said nine deaths were recorded in Metro Manila, which was battered by heavy rains and widespread flooding. Four deaths were reported in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) while Western Visayas, Negros Island Region and Northern Mindanao each had three deaths. Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan), Davao, Central Luzon and Caraga regions each recorded a fatality. A second 'Emong' They included a victim who was electrocuted in Bulacan and two others pinned to death by toppled trees in Camiguin and Surigao del Norte. The NDRRMC tally also showed eight people were reported missing in Western Visayas, Central Luzon, Metro Manila and Calabarzon. Emong was the fifth weather disturbance to hit the Philippines since the rainy season started last month. It struck northern Luzon on Thursday, raising storm warning to Signal No. 4, including western Pangasinan which experienced devastating force, reviving traumatic memories of the storm, also named 'Emong,' that ravaged the province in May 2009. It made landfall in the town of Agno in Pangasinan with maximum sustained winds of 120 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 165 kph. A man wades along waist-deep floods at a residential area afterTyphoon 'Crising' (Wipha) caused intensified monsoon rains that bought flooding in Quezon city, Philippines, on Monday, July 21, 2025. - Photo: AP Church damaged Emong tore through the Pangasinan towns of Agno, Anda, Bolinao, Burgos, Dasol, Mabini and Sual and Alaminos City, ripping off roofs, uprooting trees, cutting power lines and destroying homes. 'Emong was fierce and destructive,' Precious Cayaon of Barangay Germinal, Bolinao, told the Inquirer. 'Roofs flew off churches and homes, walls and windows peeled away.' Even the historic St. James the Great Parish Church lost a portion of its roof on the eve of the town fiesta in his honour. Parishioners manually bailed out rainwater just to prepare the church for festivities. In Agno, where the typhoon first made landfall, the local Catholic church was damaged, while Bolinao's Baptist church lost its entire roof. A tree fell on Cayaon's grandmother's house, severely damaging it. Though Cayaon's own apartment was spared, she said the howling wind and crashing debris were terrifying. In Alaminos City, resident Melchor Orpilla likened the typhoon's fury to 'a hundred horses rampaging through the house.' Orpilla remembered a similar terror during Emong in 2009, when a massive tree nearly crushed his vehicle. This year's Emong added torrential rain to the chaos, he noted. In Dasol, some churches sheltered evacuees who could no longer be accommodated in official evacuation centers. Local governments worked quickly to clear debris and reopen roads the next morning. Residents across affected towns called for the retirement of the name Emong, which they say carries a 'legacy of trauma.' 'Emong feels like a ghost from the past,' said Jherwan Copa of Bolinao. Copa recalled the 2009 typhoon vividly: roaring winds, crashing waves, rising seawater, and even two waterspouts forming near his coastal village. 'It felt like a scene from a disaster movie—trees falling, roofs flying, people crying, homes gone in a blink,' he said. Residents use poles as they ride an improvised float along a flooded road as Typhoon Co-may intensified seasonal monsoon rains at Malabon city, Philippines on Friday, July 25, 2025. - Photo: AP Out of Philippine area of responsibility on Saturday (July 26) In its 5 p.m. weather bulletin on Friday, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said Emong's centre was estimated over the coastal waters of Sabtang, Batanes. It was moving north northeastward at 40 kph. Emong, which had weakened as it move northeastward, was intensifying seasonal monsoon rains that had swamped a large swath of the country for more than a week. Pagasa's forecast showed Emong to be out of the Philippine area of responsibility (PAR) by 2pm Saturday, at 570 km north northeast of Itbayat, Batanes. On Friday, Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal No. 2 was hoisted over Batanes and Babuyan Islands while Ilocos Norte, Apayao and mainland Cagayan was under Signal No. 1. 4.5 million people affected A report from the Office of Civil Defence (OCD) said more than 4.5 million people, belonging to over 1.3 million families, have been affected by heavy rains and floods spawned by Crising, Dante and Emong, and the southwest monsoon this week. The weather disturbances impacted 4,530 barangays nationwide, displacing around 174,000 individuals, or roughly 50,000 families now staying in nearly 1,000 evacuation centres nationwide, according to OCD deputy spokesperson Diego Mariano. A total of 84 areas in the Ilocos, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Western Visayas and Metro Manila have declared a state of calamity due to the widespread impact of the storms and enhanced monsoon rains. The declaration speeds emergency funds and freezes the prices of commodities, including rice. Mariano said Central Luzon was the hardest-hit area, with more than 2.2 million people affected. However, he noted that for Emong alone, the hardest-hit areas were La Union and parts of Pangasinan. Policemen and personnel from the disaster response unit of Silang, Cavite, on Friday (July 25, 2025) retrieve one of two missing construction workers whose barracks were buried by a landslide that hit Barangay Iruhin West following heavy rains on Thursday. - Photo: Marianne Bermudez As high as 6 feet In Bulacan, massive evacuations of residents were conducted in several towns and cities, as floodwater went as high as 1.82 meters (6 feet), prompting at least seven towns and cities to place their localities in a state of calamity. In Zambales, the agricultural damage caused by the weather disturbances reached at least P15 million, with 2,315.53 hectares of rice fields in 13 towns flooded, affecting 2,460 farmers, the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist reported Friday. Agricultural losses in Oriental Mindoro was at P189.6 million as of Friday, the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office said. Power outages hit parts of Baguio City and Benguet province as early as 2am on Friday as Emong battered the Cordillera. The Baguio government recorded 33 incidents of landslides on Thursday. Work crews on Friday responded to another rockslide at Camp 6 along Kennon Road. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN