Talking to reporters, Senior Lieutenant Colonel Pham Ngoc Tuan Anh, Deputy Brigade Commander of Brigade 126 directly commanding the unit's search force, said: Right on the night of February 21, receiving orders from superiors to mobilize forces to search for missing victims of the passenger ship capsizing on Thac Ba Lake, the unit urgently mobilized forces and vehicles.
Brigade 126 mobilized 20 experienced frogman commandos along with deep diving machines, rescue boats, air compressors and many other types of rescue equipment, from Hai Phong mobilized to Thac Ba Lake to organize the search for missing victims.
By 3:30 am on February 22nd (the 6th day of Tet), the rescue force of Brigade 126 was present at the scene and mobilized to the search location.
According to Lieutenant Colonel Pham Ngoc Tuan Anh, currently the area of Thac Ba Lake is foggy, with light rain, in addition, the lake has a maximum depth of about 17 meters, causing difficulties for search work.
At 6:45 am on February 22, the frogmen teams of Brigade 126 conducted diving inspections inside the capsized ship and searched for victims in the surrounding areas.
At 7:20 am, the unit found the body of Hoang Duc M. (born 2015, residing in hamlet 1, Cam Nhan commune), near the area where the passenger train capsized.
Currently, the forces are actively expanding the diving range and equipment to search for the remaining 5 victims," Senior Lieutenant Colonel Pham Ngoc Tuan Anh added.
As Lao Dong Newspaper reported, at about 7:15 pm on February 21 (the 5th day of the Binh Ngo Tet), a passenger ship with license plate YB-0876H collided with a stone ship with license plate YB-0919, causing the passenger ship to capsize and sink, leaving 6 people missing.
At the time of the incident, the ship carrying 23 people (including the driver) was moving from Yen Binh commune to Cam Nhan commune. The passenger ship was owned by Mr. Tran Anh Tuan (47 years old, residing in Bao Ai commune). The stone-carrying ship was identified as belonging to Marble Vietnam Mineral Company (Luc Yen commune).
