Parent, student drown on national park field trip

Nguyen Xuan Manh, chairman of the Giao Thien Commune People’s Committee, said on Monday that the incident happened during a school trip to Xuan Thuy National Park on Saturday last week.

A group of 50 parents and students from a school in Hanoi’s Nam Tu Liem District were digging for clams at a Tra River estuary around 12:30 p.m. Saturday when the incident happened.

The river level began to rise after about 30 minutes and then the sand bar that about 20 people from the group were standing on suddenly collapsed, sweeping the group into the river’s strong current.

"Life vests were thrown from boats to rescue the students, and the parent leader of the group participated in the rescue. When the students were brought onto the boat, the parent saw that there was one student missing, so he returned to the water to rescue the student. But he was swept away by the river," Manh said.

A representative of Giao Thien Commune said the student who died in the incident did not have a parent accompanying him.

The bodies of the student and the parent were both found on Monday.

Manh said the location is a popular destination for trips, and other groups had visited the place and returned safely.

"This is the first time such an accident has happened," Manh said.

The Xuan Thuy national park is located south of the Red River estuary, about 150 km southeast of Hanoi. It was recognized as Vietnam’s first mangrove biosphere conservation site in 1989.