Heavy rains drown parts of HCMC

A 500-m section of To Ngoc Van Street was submerged, causing motorcyclists to pull over to the side to prevent their engines from being flooded.

Hoang Anh, 21, pushes his motorbike along in the swirling waters. Time for a spark plug change, it appears.

A man rides his scooter through a flooded section.

Five kilometers away from To Ngoc Van Street, the Thao Dien area, home to an expat community, was also inundated.

Two students wade through the waters in Thao Dien Ward after school.

The girl on the bicycle, a sixth grader, said, "Luckily I ride a bicycle to school because most of my friends are still stuck at school since their parents pick them up by motorbike and could not make it."

A foreign man walks home with shoes around his neck.

He was coming by a ride-hailing motorbike, but the driver dropped him in the middle of the street because he could go no further in the floods.

Water floods a store on Quoc Huong Street.

Flooding caused a severe traffic jam on Pham Van Dong Street.

A police officer regulates traffic at the intersection of Pham Van Dong and To Ngoc Van streets.

According to the Southern Hydro-Meteorological Station, thunderstorms brought by the southwestern monsoon caused heavy rains in many parts of HCMC.