The damaged Phú Mậu Bridge in Huế City, Khe Tre Commune on November 3. - VNA/VNS Photo

HUẾ – Heavy rains falling non-stop for several days have caused three bridges in Khe Tre Commune, Huế City, to collapse, disrupting traffic along many routes.

At around 5.30am on Monday, the Phú Mậu Bridge on provincial road 14B collapsed at the abutment, where the structure joins the approach road. 

Signs of gradual erosion had been evident earlier at the base of the bridge on the Khe Tre side leading toward downtown Huế.

On October 31 part of the soil foundation of Đan Phú Bridge was washed away, leaving only the concrete section linking the bridge base to the asphalt road.

The area has been barricaded, and vehicles are not allowed to pass.

On October 27 floodwaters collapsed the foot of the Leno bridge connecting Khe Tre and Nam Đông communes after it had corroded and began crumbling due to the torrential rainfall for several days.

Although traffic on main routes has been cut off, people can still travel between hamlets and to other communes using alternative roads.

According to Dương Thanh Phước, chairman of the Khe Tre Commune People's Committee, as of November 3 the commune had seen several landslides and some houses had collapsed. 

Authorities in the area have evacuated hundreds of families to safety.

Huế has been suffering from severe flooding due to record, days-long rainfall and its own mountainous terrain, which traps moisture and slows water drainage. - VNS