A tourist junk anchored in Hạ Long Bay on the northeastern coast of Vietnam

Rescuers on Sunday morning found the body of the last of five people who drowned after a tourist boat sank three days earlier in Ha Long Bay.

Huong is the second Vietnamese person killed when the Halong Party Cruise ship was reportedly hit by heavy winds and sank on Thursday night.

The other victims were two British and a French national.

When the incident happened, the ship, owned by Bien Mo Company, was carrying 25 passengers instead of 21 as registered when it departed from the Bai Chay Harbor at noon Thursday, according to captain Do Long’s report to his company.

The four new passengers – two British and two French – got on board at Ti-top Island, where the ship dropped by on its journey, Long said, adding that three of them were killed in the accident.

Just a few minutes after leaving the island at around 6.30 p.m. for Cat Hai Island in the adjacent province of Hai Phong, the ship entered a stormy area caused by a tropical low off the East Sea, according to the local police.

It suddenly capsized to one side, putting its first and second floors under water, they said.

Some passengers managed to climb to the third floor – the highest one - before other boats and rescuers arrived at the scene, police said.

The ship, which was considered the most modern and beautiful in Ha Long Bay, sank completely and was salvaged on Saturday morning.

“QN-5298 [the ship’s number] has just been on one trip so far as a test operation and for crews to get familiar with serving tourists on a high-ranking tourist boat,” Pham Van Ngoc, a representative of Ben Mo Company, told Thanh Nien.

The ship is yet to be licensed to provide overnight services on the bay, meaning it had to return to the port by 7 p.m. under the regulations, and the company is yet to buy insurance for it.

Investigation into accident is still ongoing, while the procedures of sending victims’ bodies home are under way, the Viet Nam News reported.

Ha Long Bay, located in the East Sea about 160 kilometers (100 miles) east of Hanoi, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1994. It is in the running for being voted one of the seven natural wonders in the world.

Last year 2.65 million tourists including 1.71 million foreigners visited the site in the northern province of Quang Ninh, according to the provincial tourism department.

Reported by Hoang Minh Duc – Hai Sam