The bridge collapsed, cars fell into the river. Recording

Super Typhoon Yagi – the most powerful typhoon to hit northern Vietnam in 30 years, according to meteorologists – has been wreaking havoc since making landfall on Saturday with winds of more than 145 kilometres per hour.

The latest reports are 127 dead and 54 missing. At least 764 people have been injured. Earlier Tuesday, local media reported 82 people had died in the typhoon, mostly from flooding, landslides and falling tree branches and roof tiles.

The north of the country, densely populated and a major manufacturing centre for international technology companies, is currently grappling with “historic flooding”, meteorologists said.

Heavy rains in Phu To province on Monday caused a steel bridge over the Red River to collapse, a moment captured on a dashcam.

A video released by state television shows some of the cars suddenly falling into the water. Eight people are missing in this incident, and a search operation is underway.

As one of the survivors of the disaster recalled, he heard a deafening sound while riding. Before he knew it, he had fallen into the water with his motorcycle. The man was very lucky. He managed to grab a fallen tree, where a rescue boat found him.

“I felt like I had fallen to the bottom of the river,” he said, adding that he used all his strength to swim to the surface but was so exhausted he could barely breathe.

Over the past three days, 200-400 liters of water per square meter have fallen in all provinces in the northern part of the country. In the northwestern provinces of Lao Cai, Yen Bai and Thai Nguyen, 400-600 liters per square meter have fallen, and in some places even 760 liters per square meter, the VNExpress portal reported. In Yen Bai province alone, nearly 60,000 people had to evacuate, and almost 18,000 households were partially flooded, local authorities reported.

The flooding is most severe along the Tao River, the upper section of the Red River, where water levels are at their highest in 53 years. If the Red River, which flows through Hanoi, were to overflow, the consequences could be serious for some 300,000 people living in an area of ​​11,000 hectares along the river, VNExpress explains. The capital city issued a flood warning for the first time in 16 years on Tuesday. Almost a thousand residents were evacuated from several districts.

Before reaching Vietnam, Typhoon Yagi killed 24 people in the Philippines and southern China last week.