VIETNAM LANDSLIDE: RESCUERS SEARCH

FOR SURVIVORS AT BARRACKS

Rescue efforts may be

thwarted amid fears of
further landslides. A frantic
search is under way in
Vietnam to find 11 soldiers
whose barracks were buried
by a huge landslide as the
country battles its worst floods for years.

Eleven bodies have so far been pulled from the remains of the barracks in the
central province of Quang Tri. One official says he heard landslides "exploding
like bombs" in the night. Heavy rainfall has hit much of Vietnam in the past
week. Floods and landslides have killed at least 70 people. There are fears
floodwaters could rise further in the coming days.

The government said a unit of Vietnam's 4th Military Region was hit by the
landslide in the early hours of Sunday morning.

"From 2am, there have been four to five landslides, exploding like bombs and it
feels like the whole mountain is about to collapse," local official Ha Ngoc Duong
was quoted by the VnExpress news site as saying.

As rescuers worked to retrieve bodies, senior officials warned of the danger of

further landslides and a safer way to access the site may be needed. The
deadly landslide comes days after 13 members of a rescue team - many of them
soldiers - were found dead trying to save workers from a hydropower plant that
had been hit by a landslide in the neighbouring province of Thua Thien Hue.