8 drown as downpours bring rough waters

Four eleventh grade students were found dead on Sunday after swimming in a Dong Nai River branch flowing through the southern province of Binh Phuoc.

A group of nine students from a local high school went camping. Six jumped into the river while the remaining three sat on the shore to grill food.

While swimming in the middle of the river, they were swept away by strong currents. One of them managed to swim to shore and called for help. Some people camping nearby quickly jumped into the river but managed to save only one of the five victims.

Three hours later, local authorities found the bodies of the remaining four and handed them over to their families for burial.

Due to the influence of low pressure in the East Sea, known internationally as the South China Sea, south and central regions recorded heavy rains over the weekend.

Police in the south central province of Binh Thuan on Monday are still looking for the body of a seventh-grade boy drowned in a canal. The boy was playing football with friends along the canal on Sunday when three of them slipped into it and were swept away by floodwaters. Two of them were rescued while the other is still missing.

Also on Sunday in the nearby Binh Dinh Province, two teenage boys and a 24-year-old man were swept by rip currents at sea. Rescue forces have found the bodies of the young boys, who were brothers 14 and 16 years old and are looking for the man.

In Vietnam, drowning remains one of the leading causes of death among children, according to the World Health Organization.

It was estimated in 2020 that more than 2,000 children aged under 16 years had lost their lives every year due to drowning in the country, the WHO said.