Fifteen people including a seven-year-old boy have been found inside a refrigerated truck in Vietnam after they tried to escape areas of the south badly hit by Covid-19, state media said yesterday.

Vietnam has been battling a devastating fourth wave of the virus since April and tens of millions of people are under stay-at-home orders, with domestic travel largely forbidden.

On Sunday police in Binh Thuan province discovered the group of 15 inside a vehicle that had aroused suspicion as it tried to pass a virus checkpoint on its way north, Ho Chi Minh City's Phap Luat online newspaper said.