Vietnam barracks hit by a landslide; 22 personnel missing
19 October, 2020
A landslide early on Sunday (Oct 18) left at least 22 military personnel missing in Vietnam's central province of Quang Tri, the government said, in what may be the major military loss in peacetime as the country battles the worst flooding in years.
Intense rainfall since early October has caused floods and mudslides which have killed a lot more than 70 persons in central Vietnam, with an increase of heavy rain expected over another few days.
The landslide hit the barracks of a unit of Vietnam's 4th Military Region, the federal government said in a statement on its website, days after another landslide killed 13 people, mostly soldiers, in the neighboring province of Thua Thien Hue.
"We'd another sleepless night," an emotional deputy defense minister, Phan Van Giang, told reporters on Sunday.
The federal government later said the bodies of three of the missing personnel have already been recovered.
"We've never lost so many military members, including two generals and high ranking officials, in natural disasters," the government of the Southeast Asian nation said in a Facebook post.
State media on Sunday reported rivers in Quang Tri province rose to the best water levels in over twenty years.
In Thua Thien Hue province, rescuers battled driving rain searching for at least 15 construction workers missing after a landslide in the beginning of the week in a mountainous area.
Rain of up to 600mm will probably continue in elements of central Vietnam until Wednesday, the country's weather agency said on Sunday.
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