A landslide occurred in Phuoc Loc Commune, Phuoc Son District on Wednesday afternoon, leaving five dead and six others missing. A landslide that happened earlier in the commune also left two people unaccounted for.

However, rescue efforts have faced many difficulties when roads to the site are seriously affected by landslides, so the rescue forces have been held up in the area which is around 30 kilometres from the site.

Quang Nam Province has set up a task force for the search, said Nguyen Manh Ha, head of the provincial Board of Internal Affairs. When the weather is better, helicopters will be dispatched for the rescue.

Many people, many communes in Phuoc Loc District have also been in dire need of necessities, including food, Ha noted.

Local authorities have also used cables to supply food for 210 workers of Dak Mi Hydropower Plant who are still being stuck due to the flooding. Efforts are being made to evacuate them as soon as possible.

Rescue operations underway for landslide victims in Quang Nam

Specialised equipment and sniffer dogs have been mobilised to search victims of the landslide in Nam Tra My district’s Tra Leng commune, the central province of Quang Nam. 

According to Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Ho Quang Buu, at 2pm on October 29, the rescue force approached Tra Leng commune’s village 1, where landslide buried and injured many local residents.

Thirty three people were found while bodies of six people were recovered, he said, adding rescue operations are still ongoing to search the remaining 14.

Buu said a landslide in Tra Van commune left 12 people injured and eight dead.

The injured victims are getting treatment at the district hospital.

Meanwhile, flash floods have hampered search and rescue operations for landslide victims in Phuoc Loc commune, Phuoc Son district, also in Quang Nam province.

A landslide hit village 3 in Phuoc Loc commune at 2pm on October 28. The rescue force found five people dead while eight other still unaccounted for. 

Efforts made to search for storm victims

Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung on October 29 ordered competent forces to race against time and mobilise vehicles to clear out National Highway 40 so as to access the sites of the landslides that buried 53 people in two mountainous communes in Quang Nam province.

Right after learning about the landslides that hit Tra Leng and Tra Van communes in Nam Tra My district on October 28 night, the Deputy PM, other Government officials and leaders of Quang Nam province came to Bac Tra My district near the landslide sites to instruct the search and rescue operations on October 29.

Two landslides hit Bac Tra My district’s Tra Leng and Tra Van communes on the night of October 28, burying 53 people. The bodies of 16 of the victims have been found as of afternoon of October 29.

Three people were killed and eight are missing from another landslide that occurred in Phuoc Loc commune in Quang Nam on the same day. The bodies of the three victims were found as of afternoon of October 29.

Storm Molave had killed one person in the Central Higlands’ Dak Lak province, one in nearby Gia Lai province, and another in central Quang Ngai province as of the morning of October 29.

 According to the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting torrential rains are forecast to continue battering the central region until October 31./.

VNA/VNN

Photo: Quang Thanh-Le Bang