Typhoon Yagi was the strongest to hit Vietnam in decades when it made landfall Saturday with winds up to 149 km/h. It weakened on Sunday amid reports of floods and landslides but the death toll has now risen to 141, with 51 people missing.
More than 700 people have been injured and floods have inundated 162,828 hectares and damaged nearly 50,000 homes, authorities say.
Video from a vehicle about to cross the steel bridge across the Red River in Vietnam’s northern Phu To province shows a span collapsing, with a truck quickly disappearing over the edge while a scooter ride following immediately behind was able to stop.
Reports said 10 cars and trucks along with two motorbikes fell into the river from both sides of the river.
Some people were pulled from the waters and taken to hospital, but at least 10 people were still missing.
“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,” Nguyen Minh Hai, told state Vietnam Television.
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 what was happening, he was falling into the river.
“I felt like I was drowning at the bottom of the river,” Son said, adding that he managed to swim and hold on to a drifting banana tree to stay afloat before he was rescued.
Nine people died on Saturday after Typhoon Yagi made landfall in Vietnam before weakening into a tropical depression. The rest died in the following floods and landslides, state media reported.
The water levels of several rivers in northern Vietnam were dangerously high, while 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 but others were still missing.
In the popular highland tourist town of Sapa in Vietnam’s north, a landslide killed six people including an infant and injured nine others.
Dozens of businesses in Haiphong province haven’t resumed production because of extensive damage to their factories, state newspaper Lao Dong reported. It said the roofs of several factories were blown apart and water seeped inside, damaging finished goods and expensive equipment.
Some companies said they still didn’t have electricity on Monday and that it would take at least a month to resume production.
Authorities are still assessing the damage to factories, but initial estimates showed that nearly 100 enterprises were damaged, resulting in millions of dollars in losses, the newspaper reported.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh visited Haiphong city on Sunday and approved a $US4.62 million ($6.94 million) package to help the port city recover.
– with AAP
