Two houses are buried in a landslide in Lao Cai Province on July 13.
According to Luu Trung Kien, Party Secretary of Xuan Ai commune, the incident occurred at around 9.46 pm when soil and rocks from a hillside collapsed and crushed two homes in Khe Que hamlet.
Nguyen Van Binh, a local resident, said he heard a loud rumble and the crashing of homes as the landslide hit. “We rushed out in panic and saw the houses of Vu Thi and Bui Thi buried under soil and debris,” he recalled.
Once the ground had stabilised, villagers began searching for victims while notifying authorities.
Bui Thi, 22, and her two young children, aged 4 and 1, were found outside the landslide zone with multiple injuries, having been thrown out by the force of the collapse. The three were taken to the commune health centre for first aid before being transferred to the Van Yen Medical Centre. Their conditions are now stable.
The newly built home of Vu Thi suffered more severe damage. Rescuers, aided by machinery, searched through the debris and discovered the bodies of the 27-year-old woman and her one-year-old daughter at around 1 am.
The newly-built house of Vu Thi is damaged in the landslide.
At the time of the disaster, only the mother and her toddler were inside the house. Her husband was working a night shift, and the two older children were staying with their grandparents nearby.
Kien said the area had experienced heavy rainfall in recent days. Local authorities had issued warnings urging residents to evacuate from landslide-prone zones.
This area had previously witnessed a fatal landslide in September last year when Typhoon Yagi swept through, claiming one life.