Luckily no one was hurt after a huge waterspout hit the bay and sank several boats in Vạn Hưng Commune, Vạn Ninh District, the south-central province of Khánh Hòa on Wednesday.

A local eyewitness said the water twister, hundreds of metres high, occured in the sea and moved inshore at 3.40 pm, causing havoc in the waters for around twenty minutes.

"I thought it would dissipate offshore, but it unexpectedly moved ashore and caused boats to sink," she said, adding that luckily no one was aboard at the time.

It was also fortunate that after the waterspout dissipated, people quickly came to save the boats, so the property damage was limited.

The eyewitness said there have been waterspouts in Vạn Hưng before, but they only swirled offshore and then disappeared, this was the first time one had come so close to land. — VNS