Landslide in Hà Giang buries van, kills eight

A landslide in Hà Giang Province on the morning of July 13 has buried a van, killing and injuring its passengers. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ GIANG — A Ford Transit van was buried by a landslide while on its way from Hà Giang Province to Bảo Lâm District in Cao Bằng Province, leaving passengers dead or injured.

As of Saturday noon, eight have been confirmed dead, including a child. Four people are hospitalised.

According to Hà Giang Province, at around 4am on July 13, the vehicle carrying 16 people was passing through National Highway No. 34 (Km 10+900, at Bắc Mê District’s Yên Định Commune) when it encountered a landslide.

When the passengers got off the vehicle to help push it through the landslide, thousands of cubic metres of land from above rushed down the road, burying the vehicle and the passengers.

The province’s police and military quickly deployed hundreds of personnel to the scene to rescue the victims.

The local Department of Health also deployed mobile medical stations at the scene to treat the buried victims and transport them back to the provincial general hospital.

The victims were quickly found and hospitalised. — VNA/VNS Photo

​Excavators are deployed to clear the scene as authorities are still working to rescue the victims.

Trần Đức Quý, Vice Chairman of Hà Giang People’s Committee, paid a visit to families of the victims and the deceased to offer support.

The landslide covered around 150m of the Km10+950 segment, measuring up to around 15m tall and 20m wide. — VNS