HANOI, Vietnam - Two more deaths have been reported following last week's bridge collapse in southern Vietnam, raising the death toll to 50, an official said Monday.
Tran Hoang Tuan, 31, a victim of the collapsed bridge, lies at 121 military hospital in Vietnam's Mekong Delta's Can Tho City September 30, 2007. [Agencies] |
One patient died in the hospital Monday morning, while another body was recovered from the debris a day earlier, said Nguyen Van Cong, spokesman for Vietnam's Transportation Ministry. All the victims were Vietnamese construction workers.
The accident, which happened Wednesday on a section of the bridge being built, also injured 81 people. Three remain missing, and the death toll is expected to rise because many badly injured workers are in critical condition, said Dang Van Tam, director of Central Can Tho General Hospital.
The cause of the accident is still under investigation, Cong said.
The 2.75-kilometer (1.7-mile) bridge is one of the largest construction projects in Vietnam, which is scrambling to build new roads, ports and bridges to keep pace with its booming economy.
The work is being done by a consortium of three Japanese firms, Taisei Corp., Kajima Corp. and Nippon Steel Corp. A fourth Japanese firm, Nippon Koei-Chodai, is the chief consultant on the US$218 million project, which was largely funded by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.