An Australian man is believed dead and another has been rescued after a tourist boat sank in Vietnam's scenic Halong Bay, killing up to a dozen people.
A local official has told the ABC that one of the victims is an Australian tourist, but the Australian embassy in Hanoi has not confirmed the death.
There are still conflicting reports of the total number of dead, with some local officials putting the number as high as 12.
The bodies of at least 11 tourists and a tour guide have been recovered, while up to 15 others have been rescued.
It is likely the passengers were asleep in their cabins on the traditional junk when something as yet unknown caused the boat to sink off Titop Island after 4:00am (local time).
Authorities are investigating whether there was a leak in the engine room.
Ngo Van Hung, director of the Halong Bay management department, says there were 20 foreign tourists, six crew and one tour guide onboard the boat.
He said the tourists were from Australia, France, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, Sweden and the United States.
The director at the Bai Chay hospital near Halong Bay has told the ABC there are 12 bodies in the hospital's morgue. All are young people.
He says one of those killed is Vietnamese and the others are foreign tourists.
He says three people admitted and treated for shock have been discharged.
A spokesman for the Halong Bay management department has told the ABC that one Australian is among the dead, however a senior government official says the nationalities of those killed have yet to be confirmed.
One survivor says he does not believe there were Australians on the boat.
American survivor Greg Fosmire, 23, managed to escape through a window but said he feared his girlfriend and another young woman in their cabin did not escape the rushing waters.
"The whole thing took between 30 seconds and a minute," he said. "I had to put my face to the ceiling to suck any air."
The Department of Foreign Affairs says people concerned about the welfare of their family and friends in the area should try to contact them directly.
If contact cannot be made, people can call DFAT's consular emergency centre on 1300 555 135.
Overnight tours
Halong Bay, about 200 kilometres north-east of Hanoi, is one of Vietnam's top tourist attractions, drawing tens of thousands of domestic and overseas visitors each year, many of whom take overnight boat tours.
The bay, located in the Gulf of Tonkin east of Hanoi, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1994.
Its 1,600 islands and islets form a spectacular seascape of mostly uninhabited limestone pillars made famous by the 1992 French movie Indochine.
It is not the first time disaster has struck at the popular tourist attraction.
In September 2009, three foreign tourists - two from Britain and one from France - died along with their local guide when their vessel overturned during heavy rain on the bay.
Official data shows that in the first 10 months of last year more than 2.3 million tourists visited Halong Bay, roughly evenly split between local visitors and foreigners, with almost 200,000 boat trips during the period.
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