This followed a rumour that early this month a person found a gemstone on a mountain in Lieu Do Commune, Luc Yen District, which was sold for VND5 billion (USD217,391).

The people are searching for germstones in Yen Bai 

Hoang Cong Lenh, Party Secretary of Lieu Do Commune, said that over the past week, lots of local residents had visited the mountain to look for gems, including traders.

The area where they dug belongs to the forest which needs to be protected.

Local authorities arranged forces on main roads, but they failed as the people sought to travel through bypasses to the mountain.

The authorities also sent representatives to the people’s households to advise them not to do so.

Lenh admitted that some people had found gemstones there, but they were valued at just a few million VND, not billions of VND as rumoured.

By this morning, many people left the mountain to come back home after failing to look for the gemstone.