An industrial accident occurred at a hydropower plant in northern Vietnam on Tuesday, killing three Chinese workers and injuring another, local authorities reported.

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Four workers of the Thuan Hoa Hydropower Plant, located in Vi Xuyen District of the northern province of Ha Giang, were swept away by strong currents on the Mien River, where the plant is being built, at 10:00 pm yesterday, said Tran Duc Quy, deputy chairman of the provincial People’s Committee. At the time, these workers were working inside a water transmission tunnel of the plant but they had not informed the management board of the construction site about their work, so when river water was released into the tunnel, they were swept away, according to the Vietnam News Agency. The accident left one worker dead immediately, while another was injured and two others went missing, local authorities said. Rescue activities were deployed and the bodies of the two missing workers were found the next morning. The four victims were sent to Vietnam by the plant’s Chinese contractor, according to local authorities. Work on the 38-MW hydropower plant began in mid-2013 and the construction is expected to be completed in 2016 at a total cost of about VND1.3 trillion (US$60.8 million). The plant’s investor is Thuan Hoa Hydropower Joint Stock Company, a Vietnamese company headquartered in the provincial capital of Ha Giang.

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