Ten passengers have been killed, including two children, after a tour bus crashed in central Vietnam, authorities said, in the latest mass casualty accident after dozens were killed last weekend when a boat sank in the country’s top tourist site of Ha Long Bay.

The overnight sleeper bus was travelling on a national highway from the capital Hanoi to the central city of Da Nang when it veered off the road in the province of Ha Tinh on Friday, hitting roadside markers and overturning, authorities said in a statement.

The crash killed 10 people, including two children, all of whom were Vietnamese. Another 12 people were injured and taken to hospital with multiple injuries.

Five of those killed were domestic tourists travelling to Da Nang for holidays, state media said.

Da Nang, a former French colonial port city facing the South China Sea, has become a popular destination for both domestic and international visitors to the country.

“The bus overturned … I couldn’t sit up as my body and my hands were smashed into the side of the bed,” a passenger who survived the crash told the local Dan Tri news site.

Several of those killed and seriously injured had been occupying the sleeper bunks located towards the front of the bus. The surviving passenger said the deceased had “suffered from the strong impact”.

Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has called for an investigation into the accident.

Traffic accidents are common in Vietnam, with road crashes killing 5,024 people in the first half of this year, down from 5,343 in the same period of 2024, according to data from the government’s National Statistics Office.

The crash comes a week after a tourist boat capsized in the UNESCO-recognised Ha Long Bay in northern Vietnam, killing 38 Vietnamese tourists and crew members.

Rescuers are still searching for one missing passenger from the boat.

Only 10 people survived what is now the country’s worst boat accident and which happened as Typhoon Wipha approached the country last week.