Heavy rain flooded roads around Hang Xanh Intersection, leaving many motorbikes stalled and forcing riders to push their vehicles onto pavements.
Students from the Faculty of Marketing and International Business at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HUTECH) stayed behind after classes to help motorists push and restart their vehicles.
At around 9 pm, the students saw scores of stranded motorcyclists near the university's campus on Dien Bien Phu Street.
According to Nguyen Tien Duan, secretary of the faculty's Youth Union, the students had no professional repair skills, but helped lift motorbikes to drain water from exhaust pipes, dried some components and checked whether the engines could restart.
"Fortunately, many of the motorbikes restarted after that, allowing people to continue their journeys," Duan said.
Over three hours, the group helped nearly 20 stranded motorcyclists, directing those with badly flooded vehicles to nearby repair shops or overnight parking.
In one case, a student drove a ride-hailing passenger more than six kilometres home while others helped her driver with his flooded motorbike.
On nearby Nguyen Gia Tri Street, Le Nguyen Hong, a resident of Binh Thanh Ward, was also stranded after her motorbike stalled in the heavy rain.
She said the students approached her and helped push the vehicle onto the pavement before getting it running again.
Hong added she was deeply moved that the students, soaked and covered in grease, kept helping until her motorbike restarted.
Students help motorists whose vehicles stalled in floodwater. Photo: T.D.
From receiving help to helping others
Nguyen Hong An, a resident of Thao Dien Ward, was among those assisted by the students.
After several repair shops on Dien Bien Phu Street were too busy to take his waterlogged motorbike, An reached the HUTECH campus and saw the students helping stranded riders.
His motorbike was too badly flooded to be repaired on the spot, so the students helped him take it to a repair shop.
Once it was running again, An decided to return and join the students rather than head home.
He said he was inspired by the students' refusal to accept money or gifts from those they helped.
"I was happy every time another motorbike started again, so I stayed with them until around midnight," An recalled.
