Thousands of commuters congested roads connecting Ho Chi Minh City with the Mekong Delta and the southern province of Dong Nai on Thursday morning, as they headed home for a four-day holiday break.

Salaried workers in Vietnam are celebrating Reunification Day (April 30) and International Workers' Day (May 1) and will only return to work on Monday next week.

The workers swarmed the roads to go back to their hometowns on Thursday morning on motorbikes, in addition to cars and trucks, leading to heavy traffic jams on many routes.

Heavy traffic jams began at around 7:00 am, mostly along National Highway 1 from Ho Chi Minh City to the Mekong Delta province of Long An, and streets leading to the Ho Chi Minh City-Trung Luong Expressway.

Both are vital routes that links the southern metropolis with Tien Giang Province and the Mekong Delta region in general.

On some sections, congestion stretched up to two kilometers.

Likewise, a traffic jam also took place near Cat Lai Ferry, a key link between Ho Chi Minh City’s District 2 and the neighboring province of Dong Nai, on Thursday morning.

According to Cat Lai Ferry’s deputy director Nguyen Thanh Tuan, the number of commuters on the ferry route has doubled from previous days, while the ferry terminal currently operates only six ferries to transport people. Two large ferries had already been damaged in a recent collision incident.

Traffic officers were dispatched to the aforementioned congested areas to relieve the gridlock.

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