Over 300 soldiers and officers of armed forces join hands in rescue mission in Hoa Binh

Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung and leaders of Hoa Binh province also arrived at the scene on the morning of October 12. The Deputy PM asked the local authorities to mobilize all forces and means to search for the bodies of the victims while ensuring absolute safety for the rescue forces during the search process. 

At the same time, it is important to inspect and review landslide-prone places in the whole province and evacuate people from dangerous areas, and take continuous measures to minimize the loss of life and property caused by natural disasters. Party committees, authorities, departments, and organizations at all levels should visit and inquired after families of victims, provide free food and medicine to them, helping local people soon settle down their lives.

On the morning of October 12, over 300 officers of the Hoa Binh Provincial Police were deployed to the scene in cooperation with other forces to search for buried victims.

Also on October 12, under the direction of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), Senior Colonel Tran Trung Thanh, Deputy Director of the Fire Prevention and Fighting and Rescue Police (C66, under the MPS) led a team of 20 firefighters with professional equipment to the scene.

Until the afternoon of October 12, the rescue forces found 9 dead bodies buried deep underground. The search operation was countering various difficulties since the victims had been buried under a huge amount of soil and rock.

All members of the rescue police force barely had time to rest, and they had to eat noodles or dried food.

According to Senior Colonel Nguyen Anh Dung, Head of the Natural Disaster Prevention and Control, Search and Rescue Bureau, under the Ministry of Defense, the ministry had mobilized hundreds of soldiers for the search for victims. The biggest difficulty facing the rescue forces was the high risk of landslide of the nearby terrain; as a result, it was impossible to deploy a large number of people and means to excavate at the same time.

On October 12, 39 people in Hoa Binh were reported dead, injured or missing due to floods, including 8 dead, 1 missing and 7 injured in Da Bac district. In Tan Lac district, the authorities acknowledged 9 people dead, 9 missing while in Kim Boi and Mai Chau, the number of deaths was 2 and 1 respectively.