Up to nearly 70 tonnes of fish raised in floating cages along the Ma River in the northern central province of Thanh Hoa have been found dead, causing major losses to local farmers.

The People's Committee of Cam Thuy District said heavy rain has resulted in the flooding which affected fish breeding on the Ma River.

More than 280 fish cages of local farmers with a total amount of 41.5 tonnes valued at VND4.8 billion were damaged.

Many farmers in Thanh Hoa clean the dead fish raised in cages on Ma River to dry

Meanwhile, the fish dead in Ba Thuoc District reached 6.46 tonnes in 646 cages. Vinh Loc District suffered 12 tonnes of losses.

Nguyen Van Dung from Ba Thuoc District People's Committee said the local authorities collected river water samples for being tested to find the causes. The result will be announced soon.

According to Vu Dinh Hao from Ba Thuoc District's flood and storm control board, the reason for the floods may lie with problems at construction of hydropower plants upstream.

Work on the Ba Thuoc 1 and Trung Son hydropower plants has been underway and the heavy rain might have swept much soil and mud away and then this flowed into the river, damaging the fish cages, Hao explained.