A busy steel bridge over an engorged Red River in northern Vietnam’s Phu Tho province collapsed Monday morning following a weekend of heavy rain and wind brought by Typhoon Yagi.
The country’s state media reported that three people were rescued and no casualties so far from the collapse.
The overall death toll from Yagi which struck the country on Saturday increased to 59 on Monday while at least 299 people were injured, officials said.
The strongest typhoon to hit Vietnam in decades, the country’s meteorological agency now downgraded Yagi to a tropical storm, but warned that heavy downpours could follow, triggering floods and landslides.
Power lines and agricultural lands are also damaged
A recent landslide due to the heavy rains killed six people including an infant and injured nine others on Sunday in Sa Pa town, a popular trekking base known for its terraced rice fields and mountains. Local tourism in Sa Pa has been suspended until further notice from authorities.
The storm also knocked out electricity poles in the Quang Ninh and Haiphong provinces. At least three million people were left without electricity. It is unclear how much of the restoration work has been completed.
The typhoon also damaged vital agricultural land, nearly 117,000 hectares where mostly rice is grown.