At around 5:00 a.m. on September 9, at Km180+650 (National Highway 34), in Ca Thanh commune, Nguyen Binh district, Cao Bang province, a serious landslide occurred on the road, pushing a passenger bus and all passengers on board into the river.
Along with that, the authorities identified the landslide point at Khuoi Ngoa hamlet, Ca Thanh commune, in addition to the 29-seat passenger bus of Viet Trang, 2 5-seat cars and about 10 motorbikes were swept away.
According to Mr. Dam Hai Trieu - Deputy Chief of Office of Cao Bang Provincial People's Committee, by the afternoon of September 12, the bodies of 26 victims had been found, about 5 victims were still missing, and the authorities were continuing to search.
Luckily surviving the horrific landslide, although he has returned to work, Mr. Nguyen Duc Thinh (Nguyen Binh town, Nguyen Binh district) is still shocked by what happened.
Talking to reporters, Mr. Thinh said: "The afternoon before, I went to a wedding in Ca Thanh commune. After the wedding, I took a bus to Nguyen Binh town, about 30km away.
I got on the bus at around 5:30 p.m. That day, because the bus was quite crowded, I sat at the back of the bus. After going a short distance, the bus encountered a landslide so we stopped and waited for 40 minutes for the road to clear. After going less than 1 km, the second traffic jam happened. At this time, along with the bus, a long line of cars were also waiting for the road to clear.
According to Mr. Thinh, in addition to the passenger bus, at the time he witnessed it, there were about 4-5 cars, 2 pickup trucks, a tractor trailer and a number of motorbikes waiting on the road.
A moment later, after hearing the news that at the top of the hill - the landslide site - there were 3 large water tanks that foreigners had previously rented to wash ore, the KIA Santos car (the car in which 4 people in a family died) turned around first, stopped at the head of Khuoi Ngoa bridge first. Then, the passenger car and some other cars turned around and parked on both sides of the bridge.
Seeing the car stuck between two landslides, in a dilemma, waiting from 9pm (September 8) until more than 2 hours later, still not able to clear the road, Mr. Thinh and an acquaintance in the car decided to walk back to Nguyen Binh town. Luckily, they met a container truck to hitchhike, the next morning when they heard the news, Mr. Thinh was completely paralyzed.
According to Mr. Thinh, the lucky ones who escaped death with him were a mother and child of a woman traveling in the same car and a middle-aged woman who got out of the car and walked the next morning.
"Her husband had already gone a long way by motorbike, but he felt impatient so he turned around to pick up the mother and child and go home together, and was lucky to escape death.
Until now, I am still shocked, I feel lucky but also sympathize with the unfortunate people" - Mr. Thinh sadly said.
As of September 12, according to information from Cao Bang Provincial Police, authorities have identified 31 of the 38 people killed in the landslides in Nguyen Binh District. The total number of missing people is currently about 15.
Among them, there were victims found swept away to Dinh Phung commune, Bao Lac district (an area bordering Ca Thanh commune, about 20km from the scene). These victims had to be carried on foot from Bao Lac by the authorities to hand over to their families.
