In three avoidable cases, two primary students drowned while fishing in a dug hole at a construction site in Hanoi, while another was found dead in a manhole in central Nghe An Province.  Yesterday morning, locals in Van Noi commune, Dong Anh District, Hanoi, found the bodies of the two boys floating in a large hole filled up with rainwater at a construction site belonging to a package of the Nhat Tan Bridge project whose contractor is Japan’s Tokyu. The boys, who were reported to be missing on Monday, September 2, could have fallen into the hole while fishing, locals said. There were no warning signs or barriers near the hole, which covers an area of 100 square meters and is about 2 meters deep, near a road under construction, said Tran Van Kha, the grandfather of one of the dead students, 10-year-old Tran Van Hao. After the deaths of Hao and another student, 9-year-old Chu Hai Dang, a related construction unit built a fence around the hole and installed a warning sign there on Tuesday afternoon, Kha said. These deaths would not have occurred if preventive steps had been taken in time, locals said. Tran Thi Hop, deputy chairperson of the commune People’s Committee, said authorities wanted related construction units to fill up all similar holes created during their work to ensure safety for residents.

The committee will work with the project’s contractor and related construction units to discuss measures to prevent similar deadly incidents in the future, Hop said.       Manhole without cover A 26-month-old preschool student in Nghi Truong Commune, Nghi Loc District, Nghe An, was found dead in a manhole without a cover in an area behind the school on Tuesday, said Nguyen Duc Thinh, head of the district Education and Training Department.

The twin boys Nguyen Doan Nhan and Nguyen Doan Tai left their classroom at about 10 am that day.

It was not until noon that these teachers discovered their disappearance and began to look for them.

The families of the boys were informed about the case and joined the search, during which they found Tai standing next to a manhole filled up with water, in which Nhan had died.

The manhole is 1 square meter in area and 1 meter in depth. Workers of a construction unit recently created the manhole but they did not make a cover for it, Thinh said.

Nhan could have fallen into the manhole, Thinh added.