Eight students drowned in Hoa Binh

At around 3:00 p.m. on March 21, after playing soccer on the sandbank by the Da River, 10 students from Huu Nghi Primary and Secondary School went to Thinh Minh wharf, Thinh Lang ward, Hoa Binh city to swim.

Suddenly, the children fell into a deep water hole and were struggling. Two male students swam to shore, eight children died.

By 4:30 p.m., authorities had recovered eight bodies and police were examining the scene. Among the victims were three elementary school children. Because they had no school in the afternoon and the weather was hotter than 30 degrees Celsius, the children went to play soccer and swim in the river.

"Maybe the children came from somewhere else to bathe and didn't know that this area had a very deep and swirling water hole," said the leader of Thinh Lang ward.

Thinh Lang Ward is located along the Da River, during the dry season, many wide sandy beaches are exposed, attracting people to play soccer. The two primary and secondary schools Huu Nghi (Huu Nghi Ward), where the student had the accident, are more than two kilometers from Thinh Lang Ward.