Soil and rock cover a 200 meters stretch of National Highway 279 following flash floods in Lao Cai Province, April 17, 2021.
Soil and rock cover a 200 meters stretch of National Highway 279 following flash floods in Lao Cai Province, April 17, 2021.
Flash floods triggered by heavy rains swept through a village in Lao Cai Province early Saturday, killing two people and leaving another missing.

The sudden flood at 2 a.m. brought down with it a large volume of rocks and soil as it hit the village in Minh Luong Commune, Van Ban District, damaging 25 houses and five hectares (12.35 acres) of crops.

"The entire scene is a mess with soil and rocks entering people's houses, and we are still looking for the missing person," Quang Van Viet, deputy head of the Command for Natural Disaster Prevention and Search and Rescue of Lao Cai Province, said.

Lao Cai is home to the resort town of Sa Pa.


The flood also dumped hundreds of cubic meters of soil and rock on a 200-meter stretch of National Highway 279 in Minh Luong Commune, paralyzing traffic.

Lao Cai received heavy rains from late Friday to early Saturday due to a cold spell from the north.

The northern mountain provinces recorded rainfall of up to 100 mm on average, with the weather station in Lao Cai reporting 96.2 mm,
according to the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.