Quang Tri, Vietnam (5 November 2025) – A Quang Tri family narrowly escaped injury late Friday afternoon when an explosion occurred in their rice field, just five meters from their house in Le Xuyen Village, Nam Cua Viet Commune.
QTMAC staff member recording coordinates where the explosion created a large crater. Photo: Quang Tri Mine Action Center.
According to an official report filed the same day by the Nam Cua Viet Commune Military Command, the explosion was suspected to have been caused by a deeply buried wartime projectile that automatically detonated in the garden field of Mr. Nguyen Tac, located west of Le Xuyen Village. Local police and commune military officers quickly arrived at the scene to assess the situation and reassure the villagers.
Video captured by Mr. Nguyen Tac’s exterior camera at 16:22 on 31 October 2025 shows the explosion sending soil and water high into the air.
A video extracted from homeowner Nguyen Tac’s exterior camera shows that the blast occurred at 16:22 on 31 October 2025, sending soil and water high into the air, startling Mr. Tac, his family, and nearby residents. The explosion drove chickens and dogs to scatter in panic, but fortunately, no one was outside at the time.
In April 2013, an elderly couple in the same village of Le Xuyen had a narrow escape when a five-inch naval shell buried beneath their home foundation exploded one Saturday evening. They were not hurt, though the explosion shredded part of their house. (Read more here.)
Acknowledging the official report from the Nam Cua Viet Commune Military Command, a Quang Tri Mine Action Center (QTMAC) team visited the site on Saturday morning to verify and collect information. Mr. Nguyen Tac, 62, confirmed that the blast created a crater about four meters in diameter and two to three meters deep in the rice garden adjacent to his home, where rice had been harvested a couple of months earlier.
Screenshot of the Confirmed Hazardous Area (CHA) pending clearance near the location of the explosion in Le Xuyen Village. Source: QTMAC database.
According to QTMAC, Nam Cua Viet Commune has 43 Confirmed Hazardous Areas (CHAs) with a total area of 16,924,591 square meters. Of this, 35 CHAs (14,925,047 m²) have been cleared. Six CHAs remain uncleared, including the one near Mr. Tac’s rice field.
Located along the coastline, Trieu Phong District was subject to many naval attacks during the period of 1968–1972. That explains why many coastal communes are heavily impacted by unexploded projectiles, in addition to other explosive remnants of war.
The explosion serves as another reminder of the lingering danger posed by wartime ordnance in Quang Tri Province, which straddled the former Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that divided North and South Vietnam from 1954 to 1975 and endured some of the heaviest bombardment of the war.
Data managed by QTMAC shows that a total of 619,465,479 square meters of land in Quang Tri have been confirmed as contaminated with cluster munitions. As of today, 44.4 percent of that total area has been made safe through the ongoing clearance efforts of MAG, PeaceTrees Vietnam, and NPA/RENEW.
Residents are reminded to report any discovery of explosive ordnance immediately to the Quang Tri Mine Action Center Hotline: 0901 941 941.
Project RENEW – Restoring the Environment and Neutralizing the Effects of the War
18 Nguyen Co Thach Street, Nam Dong Ha, Quang Tri Province, Vietnam
0233 3858 445 | ✉️ admin@landmines.org.vn | www.landmines.org.vn
Ngo Xuan Hien, Communications & Development Manager
0915 352 565 | ✉️ ngoxuanhien@landmines.org.vn
