HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — A bridge collapsed and a bus was swept away by flooding in Vietnam on Monday, raising the death toll in the Southeast Asian country to at least 64 from a typhoon and subsequent heavy rains that also damaged factories in export-focused northern industrial hubs, state media reported. Nine people died on Saturday after made landfall in Vietnam before weakening into a tropical depression. The rest died in the floods and landslides that followed on Sunday and Monday, state media VN Express reported.
The water levels of several rivers in northern Vietnam were dangerously high. A bus carrying 20 people was swept into a flooded stream by a landslide in mountainous Cao Bang province on Monday morning. State media said four bodies were recovered from the bus and one person was rescued alive.
The others were still missing. In Phu Tho province, rescue operations were continuing after a steel bridge over the engorged Red River collapsed Monday morning. Reports said 10 cars and trucks along with two motorbikes fell into the river.
Some people were pulled out of the river and taken to a hospital, but at least 10 people were still missing. Nguyen Minh Hai, who fell into the flooded river, told state Vietnam Television, “I was so scared when I fell down. I felt like I’ve just escaped death.
I can’t swim and I thought I would die.” Pham Truong Son, 50, told VN Express that he was driving on the bridge on his motorcycle when he heard a loud noise. Before he knew .