After the destructive passage of Typhoon Yagi, rescuers in northern Vietnam are working to search for the many missing people and secure damaged or completely destroyed infrastructure.
About ten cars and two motorbikes were swept away on Monday, September 9, when a bridge collapsed in Phu Tho province, northeast of Hanoi in Vietnam. The 375-meter-long infrastructure was cut in two after Typhoon Yagi hit.
Footage broadcast by state media showed the massive latticework structure falling in one piece into the muddy waters of the Red River.
A very high human toll
Initially, Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc said 13 people were missing following the accident, according to VNExpress. There were 10 cars and trucks, as well as two motorcycles, on the bridge when it collapsed, he said.
As of Tuesday morning, authorities announced that five people had been rescued, but eight others were still missing.
Typhoon Yagi has killed at least 127 people in the country, according to an updated report this afternoon. Floods and landslides have also injured 752 people, disaster officials said.
Local authorities have announced the evacuation of more than 59,000 people forced from their homes in Yen Bai province in northern Vietnam, where nearly 18,000 homes were partially submerged.
Two days after Yagi struck, Vietnam is still grappling with the deadly aftermath of the storm, which destroyed homes and transport infrastructure and damaged factories, with gusts exceeding 150 kilometres per hour.
Nearly 210,000 hectares of crops have been destroyed by the floods, the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported. At least 734,000 cattle and poultry have died.
The typhoon, which made landfall near Haiphong on Saturday morning before weakening on Sunday evening, is considered by meteorologists to be the most powerful to hit the region in the past 30 years.
