NGHỆ AN — Search and rescue forces on Thursday morning found another corpse from a coal ship that went missing offshore the central province of Nghệ An on Sunday night with 13 people on board.

The body has not yet been identified.

Rescue forces have so far saved seven members and found four dead bodies. The search continues for the remaining two members of the ship.      

To search for the missing members, rescue forces have used 20 ships and boats of all kinds to expand searching areas and mobilised assistance from fishing ships of local fishermen.

The VTB26 ship issued emergency signals on Sunday night when it was anchoring at Hòn Ngư Island in Nghệ An Province to avoid storm Talas, which was forecast to make landfall on central localities. The ship then sunk and lost signals with 13 members on board.

The tropical storm, which wreaked havoc in the northern and central regions of Việt Nam earlier this week, has claimed seven lives and left four others missing.

According to the Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention, the seven deaths were two from the northern mountainous provinces of Hà Giang and Yên Bái; four from Nghệ An Province and one from the central province of Thanh Hóa. 

The disaster destroyed 172 houses and unroofed 6,126 others, while sinking 64 fishing vessels and destroying 436 metres of road, 1,943 metres of embankment and 4,540 power poles in areas it swept through. About 801ha for aquaculture and 47,632ha of rice and subsidiary crops were damaged and flooded. — VNS