Three passengers, two children and a man have been found dead after a tourist boat carrying 56 people sank on the Han River in Danang City on the night of June 4.
The bodies of Pham Tan Cuong, 46, from the central province of Binh Dinh and two children, seven year-old Trinh Thi Phuong and her four year-old brother Trinh Huy Hoang from the northern province of Bac Kan were found on June 5 afternoon some 100 metres from the sunk vessel.
The incident happened at around 8.30pm when the Thao Van 2 cruise ship suddenly capsized in front of the Novotel Hotel.
Some of the passengers said that the boat turned over around 15 minutes into the cruise.
Do Thi Huong, one of the survivors, said the passengers were not told to wear life jackets.
"We saw the ship capsizing and sinking without colliding with any boat or floating object," she said. "We were then told that it had a capacity to carry just 28 people but there were 56 of us on at that time."
Local authorities mobilised 200 people to search for missing people. The boat was salvaged by June 5 but no other bodies were recovered.
53 people including 20 children and four Malaysian tourists were rescued and rushed to Danang Paediatric and Gynaecological Hospital and Danang General Hospital. Nguyen Son, director of Danang Paediatric and Gynaecological Hospital said some were accepted suffering from serious respiratory failure.
Chairman of Danang City People's Committee, Huynh Duc Tho, spoke at a press conference on the accident on June 5 that the boat had been modified from a fishing boat and was not registered to carry tourists.
"We have detained the captain for investigation," Tho said. "We have also come to apologise and provide initial supports to the victims."
PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc arrived at the site on June 5 to direct the rescue activities and visit the injured at local hospitals.
PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc visited the victims on June 5.
PM Phuc stressed that this was a serious accident and urged for careful investigations and prosecution of the organisations and indivuduals involved.
