Consequences of Typhoon Yagi: Bridge collapses in Vietnam, death toll rises to 59

Nine people died during the typhoon that made landfall in Vietnam on Saturday before weakening to a low pressure system, and 50 more died in the floods and landslides that followed. Water levels in several rivers in northern Vietnam were dangerously high.

A passenger bus carrying 20 people was swept into a flooded river by a landslide in the mountainous province of Cao Bang on Monday morning. Rescue workers were deployed, but landslides blocked the way to the accident site.

Rescue operations continued in Phu Tho province after a steel bridge over the flooded Red River collapsed on Monday morning. Ten cars and trucks and two motorcycles reportedly fell into the river. Three people were pulled from the river and taken to hospital, but 13 others were missing.

Pham Truong Son, 50, told VNExpress he was riding his motorbike across the bridge when he heard a loud noise. Before he knew what was happening, he fell into the river. “I felt like I had drowned to the bottom of the river,” Son told the newspaper, adding that he managed to swim and cling to a floating banana tree to stay afloat before he was rescued.