TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Rescuers were desperately searching for five people still missing on Sunday, July 20, 2025, after 37 people died when a boat capsized off one of Vietnam's most popular tourist destinations.
A tour boat carrying families around Vietnam's famed Ha Long Bay was struck by a storm on Saturday, in one of the deadliest disasters at the UNESCO World Heritage site.
The "Wonder Sea" was carrying 48 passengers and five crew members when it capsized due to sudden heavy rain, according to the VNExpress news website, as cited by CNA.
Most of the passengers were families visiting from the capital, Hanoi, with more than 20 children among them, it said.
Border guards had rescued 11 people and recovered 34 bodies by Saturday evening, it added.
Overnight, the bodies of three crew members were found in a cabin, and rescue efforts continued into Sunday morning to find the five people still missing.
Authorities have not released details about the tourists or their nationalities.
One of the rescued victims, a 10-year-old boy, told state-run media outlet VietnamNet: "I took a deep breath, swam through a gap, dived in, and then swam back. I even shouted for help, and then I was pulled by a boat with soldiers on board."
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh offered his condolences on Saturday to the victim's family and asked the Ministry of Defense and Public Security to immediately launch a search and rescue operation.
Authorities will "investigate and clarify the cause of the incident and strictly deal with violations," the government said in a statement.
CNA has contacted Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to find out if there were any Singaporeans on board the tourist boat.
Tran Trong Hung, a resident of the Ha Long Bay area, said, "The sky darkened around 2 p.m.."
There was "toe-sized hail accompanied by heavy rain, thunderstorms, and lightning," he said.
Heavy rain also hit northern Hanoi, Thai Nguyen Province, and Bac Ninh Province on Saturday.
Several trees were uprooted in the capital by strong winds.
The storm follows three days of intense heat, with temperatures reaching 37 degrees Celsius in some areas.
Mai Van Khiem, director of the National Hydrometeorological Forecasting Center, was quoted by VNExpress as saying that the thunderstorms in northern Vietnam were not caused by the influence of Tropical Storm Wipha in the South China Sea.
Wipha entered the South China Sea on Sunday with increasing strength and is expected to make landfall in Vietnam early next week.
Ha Long Bay is one of Vietnam's most popular tourist destinations, with millions of people visiting its turquoise waters and rainforest-covered limestone islands every year.
Last year, 30 boats sank in a shipping lock in coastal Quang Ninh Province along Ha Long Bay after Typhoon Yagi brought strong winds and waves.
And this month, a ferry sank off the coast of the popular Indonesian resort island of Bali, killing at least 18 people.
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