Eight people has died as torrential rain unleashed a new wave of floods and landslides across central Vietnam since the weekend, disrupting daily life and agriculture.
Rainfall has topped 1,100 millimetres in several provinces, overwhelming communities in a region known both for major coffee production and popular coastal tourism.
Six of the fatalities occurred when a bus was struck by a landslide on the route from Da Lat to Nha Trang on Sunday evening, while seven people remain missing.
Flooded low-lying farms in Dak Lak are slowing the coffee harvest, with growers reporting only a small portion of beans picked and little sunlight to dry them.
The hard-hit province of Khanh Hoa, a coastal region with hilly inland terrain, recorded one of its heaviest rainfall in years on Sunday night when earth and rocks collapsed on a bus traveling through the Khanh Le pass in the central highlands, state media reported.
The landslide crushed the front of the bus at around 9.30 p.m. local time, killing six people and trapping many passengers.
Rescuers struggled for hours to reach the scene as heavy rain had also caused landslides on both sides of the pass, cutting off access. Rescue teams were only able to reach the bus after midnight, according to state media.
“Rocks and soil fell down with a loud bang. I was thrown on the roof of the bus before falling down,” Nguyen Long Cuong, the 39-year-old bus conductor, told state media VN Express.
The bus was carrying 32 people from Vietnam’s financial capital, Ho Chi Minh City and was traveling from Da Lat in Vietnam’s central highlands to the coastal city of Nha Trang.
The injured were taken to a nearby hospital. State media said two of the dead bodies were still trapped under the debris as the treacherous terrain hindered the work.
The winding, 33-kilometer (20-mile) stretch carved into steep mountainsides is scenic and popular with tourists but prone to landslides in the rainy season.
The rains have triggered multiple landslides on major routes in Vietnam’s Central Highlands and traffic on several hilly passes has been suspended, state media said.
Also in Khanh Hoa, waterlogged soil collapsed on 10 workers at the Khanh Son pass on Sunday night, killing one and injuring another, while another remained missing, state media said. The seven others were able to flee to safety.