Latest news with #HaLongTouristBoatAssociation
The Hill
20-07-2025
- The Hill
At least 35 dead after tourist boat capsizes in Vietnam
A tourist boat in Vietnam capsized during a sudden thunderstorm on Saturday, leaving 35 people dead, while four remain missing, according to state media. Ten people survived, including one 10-year-old boy who hid in an air pocket after the ship turned over, local media said. 'Everything happened so fast,' the boy, who was traveling with his parents, told VietnamNet. 'I tried to get out, and then the soldiers rescued me.' State media reported that all 49 people aboard the tourist boat were Vietnamese, including 46 passengers and three crew members. The ship, built in 2015, was on a sightseeing tour of Sung Sot Cave and Titop Island, two popular destinations in Ha Long Bay, known for their scenic views. 'It's the worst accident I've known in Ha Long Bay in the last 25 years,' Bui Cong Hoan, deputy chairman of Ha Long Tourist Boat Association, told The New York Times in a phone interview. Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh sent his condolences to the victims' families, and he ordered the ministries of National Defense and Public Security, as well as civil defense workers, to support the search and rescue operations.
New York Times
19-07-2025
- New York Times
At Least 34 Dead After Vietnam Tourist Boat Capsizes, State Media Says
A boat carrying dozens of tourists capsized in Vietnam's Ha Long Bay on Saturday, leaving at least 34 people dead, according to state-owned media. The boat, carrying 48 passengers and five crew members, was on a sightseeing tour when a sudden thunderstorm with strong winds created high swells that overturned it, Vietnamese news outlets reported. Rescue teams that included naval commandos from the Quang Ninh Province, in northeastern Vietnam, recovered 34 bodies, with at least eight children among the dead, according to Dantri, a state-owned media outlet. The emergency crews, working past nightfall, had pulled at least 10 survivors out of the water, state media reported. Among those rescued was a boy who had been in the water for several hours. 'It's the worst accident I've known in Ha Long Bay in the last 25 years,' Bui Cong Hoan, deputy chairman of Ha Long Tourist Boat Association, said by telephone. All of the passengers and crew members were Vietnamese citizens, state-run media said. Images of the incident showed the boat completely overturned, its hull sticking out above the water. Vietnamese media reported that of one family, with two parents and two children, only the mother had survived. Pham Minh Chinh, the prime minister of Vietnam, ordered civil defense workers and the Defense and Public Security Ministries to support the search efforts, Vietnam's official government news site said. The boat was returning from a tour of Dau Go and other limestone caves in Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with more than 1,600 islands, when the storm broke out, Mr. Hoan said. The boat, part of a tour association, was among hundreds of vessels that ferry tourists around the bay each day. In 2022, 17 tourists died when a speedboat boat capsized in the waters off Quang Nam in southern Vietnam. The boat's captain, was sentenced to seven years in prison, according to Vietnamese news outlets. In 2009, 40 people were killed when an overloaded ferry sank in a river in central Vietnam, in what the police described as one of the country's worst such disasters.
