Five people are believed to remain missing after a landslide caused the Southeast Asia - Nam Luc hydropower plant’s operations building in Lao Cai Province, northern Vietnam to crumble on Tuesday, a local official confirmed the same day.

Several other citizens have sustained injuries near the landslide area in Ban Cai Commune, Bac Ha District, Nguyen Duy Hoa, secretary of the Party Committee in Bac Ha, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

Rescue efforts, involving around 50 rescuers, are underway but are hindered by the challenging terrain and limited equipment.

Local authorities are unable to approach the remote location, which is accessible only by forest paths.

Officials had to travel on foot to reach the site, with the nighttime conditions delaying the arrival of additional rescue teams.

An initial report showed that a local police officer saw some injured people emerging from the landslide-hit area when he was passing the hydropower plant at 11:00 am on Tuesday.

The officer was unable to report the incident to authorities due to a mobile network outage.

As a result, he had to run 10 kilometers to a location with mobile phone reception to inform the district’s police agency of the incident.

By 12:00 pm the same day, the survivors were taken to a local medical facility for care and treatment.

On Tuesday afternoon, the provincial steering committee for natural disaster prevention and control deployed an inflatable boat to the site to transport the rescuers and the injured via the Chay River.

The committee also sent a satellite phone to serve communication at the site, but its efforts to reach the scene have been challenging.

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