On the afternoon of July 19, in Quang Ninh province, heavy thunderstorms accompanied by tornadoes, lightning and hail caused damage in the province, including overturning tourist boats in Ha Long Bay.
According to initial information, the Green Bay ship 58 with license plate QN-7105 carrying tourists on Ha Long Bay left the dock at 12:55 on July 19. The tour group visited route 2 (Sung Lam - Titop Island). At 1:30 p.m. the same day, the ship encountered a sudden thunderstorm, and at 2:05 p.m. the same day, the GPS signal was lost.
Immediately after receiving information about the incident, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha, provincial leaders and functional forces quickly arrived at the scene of the incident to organize a search and rescue. The province has also sent comrades to duty and direct at the headquarters of the 2nd Border Guard Squadron - Provincial Border Guard Command, and hospitals to directly direct the continued command and operation of search and rescue and rescue work and the work to overcome the consequences. At the same time, mobilize a maximum of nearly 1,000 people and 100 ships and boats of all kinds to participate in search and rescue work; direct medical facilities to be ready to support and handle situations when finding victims.
At 1:40 a.m. on July 20, the authorities salvaged the ship and found 45 out of 49 people (of which 10 were alive and 35 had died), 4 people were missing and have not been found.
Quang Ninh province has conducted activities to encourage, visit, and care for the injured and the victims' families; supported funeral expenses of 25 million VND/person for relatives to take the victims home to take care of the funeral; supported 10 injured victims' families with 5 million VND/person. At the same time, arrange accommodation and support all accommodation costs for the victim's family when in Quang Ninh.
Quang Ninh province is directing search and rescue forces to continue to actively deploy measures to search for the remaining missing people at sea; focus on investigating and clarifying the cause of the shipwreck; fixing the incident, encouraging visits to the victims' families.
Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Vu Dai Thang - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation - expressed his deep sympathy for the families of the victims, emphasizing that this was a particularly painful incident, caused by complicated and unusual weather factors. In the face of the emergency situation, the province promptly directed functional forces to intervene with the highest sense of responsibility, clearly demonstrating the province's concern, sharing and heart for the people.
The Provincial Party Secretary requested the authorities to continue to focus highly on the search, not to miss any possibility, taking advantage of every hour and every minute to search for those who are still missing. At the same time, all levels and sectors need to continue to pay attention to support and promptly encourage the families of victims who died, those who were injured and those who are facing difficulties due to the impact of the incident, in order to help families overcome the pain and stabilize their lives soon.
Mr. Vu Dai Thang also directed functional agencies to review and supplement the coordination mechanism, assign commands, and implement the "4 on-site" process in handling accidents, incidents, and rescue work at sea. Along with that, review and inspect all processes, ensure absolute safety for operating vehicles and boats; focus on effectively preventing storm No. 3.
