Twenty foreigners and overseas Vietnamese panicked when their tourist bus narrowly avoided falling into a canal from a bridge in Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday after hitting the bridge’s barrier due to a flat tire.

The frightening incident occurred on Wednesday afternoon when a 24-seat bus carrying the 20 guests suddenly got a flat tire and crashed into the barrier of the Lo Gom 2 Bridge on the direction towards the Thu Thiem Tunnel in District 1.

The vehicle pushed the separation strip away before crashing into the guardrail, according to witnesses.

The scene of the bus with 20 foreigners and overseas Vietnamese

The bus – and all its guests – would have fallen into the canal if the guardrail had not survived the hard impact, witnesses said. 

Alan Tran, a Vietnamese-American man among the overseas Vietnamese on the bus, said, “I was sitting near the driver when I heard the loud noises of a collision. At that time I was afraid that the bus would fall into the canal below it, but luckily the bridge’s guardrail was solid enough.”

The bus was returning to District 4 after a tour of areas in the Mekong Delta region.

“When the flat tire occurred, I hit the brake right away and tried to steer the bus away from the bridge’s guardrail but I failed,” said Nguyen Thuat Hung, the bus driver.

Luckily, the bus did not collide with any other vehicles in the incident, Hung added.

About 45 minutes after the incident, another bus was sent to the scene to carry the guests to their destination.