People gathered along Hải Phòng's main streets to watch the parade on May 11. VNA/VNS Photo Hoàng Ngọc

Nearly 3,000 people participated in a military parade and public procession on May 11 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Hải Phòng Liberation Day, when the city was free from French occupation.

The ceremony took place at the Municipal Theatre Square and the parade and procession moved towards the main thoroughfares in the port city.

The soldiers of the Hải Phòng City Military Command on parade.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Hoàng Minh Cường, vice chairman of Hải Phòng City People's Committee [Administration], said that after the Geneva Agreement in July 1954, Việt Nam was temporarily divided into two regions, and Hải Phòng was the last city in the North still under the control of the French. The peace agreement stipulated a period of 300 days for France to withdraw its troops to the South.

Army officers at the parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Hải Phòng's liberation.

Eventually, the Vietnamese resistance government took over the port city on May 13, 1955, and the whole North was free from French occupation in the First Indochina War.

Naval soldiers on parade.

Seventy years have passed, and Hải Phòng today is thriving in all fields, worthy of the tradition that ancestors left behind - a city proudly looking back in the past to boldly march towards the future.

The column of the municipal police.

On this occasion, Hải Phòng received the title "Heroic City" - one of the noble awards of the State for localities with great contributions to the resistance wars and the country's development. VNS

People march in the public procession.

The procession is joined by hundreds of local artists.

Women in traditional dress pass by the grandstand.