Boy washed into sewer as heavy rain triggers flash floods in southern Vietnam

By Phuoc Tuan October 16, 2016 | 07:27 pm PT

The sewer hole where a boy in Binh Duong Province was washed down during heavy rain on Sunday. Photo by VnExpress/Phuoc Tuan

Rescue workers are still searching for the missing eight-year-old.

Police in the southern province of Binh Duong are searching for an eight-year-old boy who was washed down a sewer as heavy rains combined with high tides causing flash floods in the area on Sunday afternoon.

The boy was playing in the street at the time with three friends. The others were rescued but he was pulled into the sewer along the street at around 4 p.m.

Dung, who works across the street, said he rushed over after seeing the children struggling to hold on to each other in the swirling water. “But when we managed to pull three of them from the water, the boy had already gone down the pipe,” he said.

The sewer opening is 30 centimeters wide and was not covered by a fence at the time.

Open sewer holes have had tragic consequences on many occasions in Vietnam, mostly involving children.

A similar incident occurred in Binh Duong in September 2014 when a nine-year-old boy was pulled into a manhole of two square meters on the sidewalk after its cover was washed away by heavy rain. The body of the boy was found two days later, around 700 meters away.

In October 2014, a five-year-old boy who fell into a flooded underground sewer in Quang Ngai Province in central Vietnam was luckier after locals acted quickly to open a manhole 40 meters away and pull him out. The boy was already unconscious and only coughed out water after five minutes of CPR.

The serious flooding in Binh Duong Province in pictures:

Rough water washed away five motorbikes on a road in downtown Binh Duong on Sunday.

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Dozens of cars broke down on the streets.

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Some people had to carry their bikes over the street dividers to turn back to avoid heavy flooding ahead.

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As night falls, people decided to wade through the water to get home instead of waiting for the water to recede.

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"I have never seen such terrible flooding," this man says, pushing his bike through the deep water.

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Vehicles backed up over several kilometers on a national highway.

Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Trieu

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