All 45 Vietnamese stranded on landslide-hit road in Laos rescued

Many villages in Khounkham district of Laos's Khammouane province have been flooded over the past days. (Photo: VNA)

Vientiane – All the 45 Vietnamese people stranded due to landslides on a road linking Bolikhamxay province in central Laos with Ha Tinh province in central Vietnam have been rescued by Lao authorities.

Landslides on National Highway 8 of Laos, an artery connecting central Laos with central Vietnam, on August 3 triggered congestion on many stretches. As both ends of this road were hit by landslides, a number of vehicles with many drivers and passengers were stranded. Worse still, the affected areas are in the mist of the mountains where mobile phone signals are unavailable.

Facing that situation, the Lao Ministry of National Defence sent a rescue team led by Deputy Minister Lt. Gen. Chanthong Sonetaat to save the stranded, a representative of the Vietnamese attaché office in Laos told the Vietnam News Agency on late August 6.

The team reported that there were 45 Vietnamese nationals on 22 automobiles trapped on the section from Km45 to Km66 of National Highway 8.

As of August 5 evening, all the 45 Vietnamese were saved from that area, including 35 sent to Khamkert district of Bolikhamxay province and 10 others to Khounkham district of Khammouane province. All of them are receiving care and recovering.

Meanwhile, a truck with a driver on it was under rubble, but rescuers haven’t been able to identify whether the driver is a Lao or a Vietnamese citizen, the rescue team added.

All the coaches running from Laos to Vietnam stranded in the Lao side have perted their path to go to Vietnam through Cha Lo Border Gate in the country’s central province of Quang Binh.

On August 4, the Department of Public Works and Transport of Bolikhamxay province announced the temporary closure of a section of National Highway 8 that is close to Cau Treo Border Gate of Vietnam’s Ha Tinh province due to landslides. It also said that authorities are striving to resume traffic as soon as possible.

Laos warns of heavy-rain-induced landslide, flooding risks Rain has been falling steadily in recent days, inundating hundreds of hectares of farmland and affecting thousands of families in the central Lao province of Savannnakhet, the Lao Meteorology and Hydrology Department has announced.