HCMC man felled by falling tree following torrential downpour

By Thu Anh, Dinh Van, Ha An September 24, 2020 | 10:22 pm PT

Firefighters clean up a 30-m tree that fell across the street and onto a man under heavy rain in HCMC, September 24, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Dinh Van.

A man in HCMC died early Friday after an uprooted tree fell on him following heavy rain Thursday afternoon.

The man, 30, was riding a motorbike on District 10’s Nguyen Tri Phuong Street when an apitong tree around 30 meters tall fell on him at around 3:30 p.m.

He was rushed to Cho Ray Hospital while partially conscious and suffering low blood pressure. Doctors said parts of his arms and shoulders had been broken, his right leg wounded and that he suffered from epidural hematoma. The patient had neither personal identification nor family members with him at the time of admittance, though they did arrive after.

Despite surgery and intensive care, he succumbed to his injuries at around 2 a.m. Friday.

Torrential rain hit HCMC on Thursday afternoon, flooding streets and disrupting traffic. The thunderstorm was caused by a low-pressure area moving south-southwest toward southern Vietnam, according to Le Dinh Quyet, deputy head of the Southern Regional Hydrometeorological Center's forecasting department.