Three family members drown in village well

By Duc Hung March 4, 2023 | 08:02 pm PT

A village well in Quang Long Commune in Can Loc District, Ha Tinh Province where three bodies were found submerged March 4, 2023. Photo by VnExpress/Duc Hung

Three members of a family were found dead in an old village well in Ha Tinh Province in central Vietnam a few hours after they went fishing.

Tran Quoc Toan, 24, his sister Tran Thi Ngoc Bich, 20, and his nephew Nguyen Quang Huy, 11, went to a large well in Can Loc District to fish Saturday morning.

As they still had not returned by noon, their family went out to look and found three pairs of slippers and three fishing rods at the well. They reported the situation to the local authorities.

Dozens of people participated in the search for the three and by 1:30 p.m. they found the bodies of Toan, Bich and Huy in the well.

Dang Dinh Vinh, chairman of Quang Loc Commune, said that it was possible that one of them fell during fishing and the other two jumped down to help, but eventually all were drowned.

Last year one person died from falling into the same well. At meetings with the authorities local residents have proposed that the well be filled in with dirt to prevent similar accidents from happening again, Vinh said, adding that the government will consider the proposal to ensure safety.

The well is at least 2.5-meters deep and is tens of meters wide. It used to be the source of water for local residents during droughts but now as most people use tap water the well is a fishing place for some residents.

Between 2020 and 2021, of nearly 5,000 accidents in Vietnam, 29% of them happened underwater, second only to fire and explosion, with 33.7%.