According to a report from local police, the incident occurred at 9.30 am on January 17 when three men aged 42, 33, and 16 arrived on a small boat at a river section in Ong Quyen Village, Ngoc Hien District to search for scrap metal on the river bed.
Some local people then heard a loud explosion coming from where the men were located and arrived to see the boat shattered while the men were missing, the report said. Some witnesses claimed they saw human body parts at the site.
Secretary of Ngoc Hien District Party Secretary, Pham Chi Hai, said that as of 3 pm the same day, they were still searching for the three missing men and investigating the cause of the explosion.
The Cua Lon River spans nearly 60 kilometres and is between 200-400 metres in width.
