TV news bulletins showed footage of a mass of tangled steel and concrete at the scene, and emergency workers in white uniforms taking bloodied victims into hospitals for treatment.
Civilians also contributed by helping to carry the injured on stretchers to hospital and others donated blood, officials said, adding at least 150 people were being treated for injuries.
" I'm in shock. I feel helpless. I couldn't do anything," a blood-splattered survivor, Tran Minh Thu, said in a TV interview.
Officials said the rescue effort would continue around the clock. " They are using machinery to cut and lift the concrete," a police official in Vinh Long said by telephone. " It is very difficult to reach the bodies and there is also danger of further collapse."
