Two children are rescued by a drone from a fast-flowing flood in Gia Lai Province on July 3.
Officials from Ia Tul Commune, Gia Lai Province, confirmed that two children herding cattle had been stranded in the middle of a river and were rescued by a local man using a drone.
A video circulating on Facebook that same afternoon showed three children trapped in rapidly rising floodwaters at a section of the river in Ia Tul Commune.
In a quick-thinking move, a local resident deployed an agricultural drone, typically used for spraying pesticides and fertiliser, to fly over the flood and help pull two of the children to safety. The third child was later rescued by family members using a boat.
Authorities identified the drone operator as Tran Van Nghia.
Nghia told reporters that around noon, he was using the drone to spray pesticides on a sweet potato field near the riverbank when he heard locals shouting that children were trapped in the flood.
Due to the fast-rising and powerful current, it was impossible for anyone to swim across to help. Nghia quickly devised a plan to tie a rope to the drone and fly it over to the children.
"This drone normally has a lifting capacity of over 50 kilograms. As the water was rising rapidly and the children were stranded mid-river, I thought of using the drone to deliver the rope," Nghia said.
"Thankfully, both children were able to hold on to the rope and were pulled safely to shore, one after the other. The third child was rescued shortly afterward by a villager with a boat. Just 10 minutes later, the water level rose even higher," he recalled.