Vi Tan Ward police said on October 21 that a drowning incident in the area had claimed the lives of two teenagers.
According to preliminary information, at about 2 pm on October 20, a group of eight 17-year-old students in their final year at Vi Thanh High School were using a homemade ferry to visit a friend on the opposite bank of Nong Dan canal in Vi Tan Ward.
The ferry was assembled from four plastic drums, with iron bars joined together across the top to form a platform that could be pulled across the water.
The homemade ferry made from plastic drums.
When all eight students boarded, the ferry became unstable. As they crowded to one side, it tilted and overturned, throwing all eight into the canal. Six managed to swim safely to shore, while the other two sank beneath the water.
Local residents raised the alarm and rushed to help, recovering one of the students. However, the teenager died on the way to hospital because of the severity of the injuries.
About 30 minutes later, search teams recovered the second victim’s body around 20 metres from the site of the accident.
