Flags flown at half mast after death of former Vietnamese president Tran Dai Quang

Flags were flown at half mast to mark the funeral of former Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang yesterday. Photo / File

If you wondered why flags around the country were flying at half mast yesterday, you're not alone.

Herald readers and staff questioned why flags, including the iconic Auckland Harbour Bridge one, were flying at half mast.

The answer: In honour of former Vietnam president Tran Dai Quang.

Quang died last week at 61 and his funeral was held yesterday.

He died despite "utmost efforts to treat him by Vietnamese and foreign professors and doctors and care by the party and state leaders", a statement from the Vietnamese Government said. It said Quang died at a military hospital in Hanoi but did not elaborate on his illness.

The state-run online newspaper VnExpress quoted a former health minister and the head of a national committee in charge of leaders' health, Nguyen Quoc Trieu, as saying that Quang had contracted a rare and toxic virus since July last year and had travelled to Japan six times for treatment. He did not specify the virus.

Trieu said the president lapsed into a deep coma hours after being admitted to the National Military Hospital 108 on Thursday afternoon.

"Japanese professors and doctors treated him and helped consolidate the president's health for about a year," Trieu said. "However, there are no medicines in the world that can cure the illness completely, instead it only could prevent and push it back for some time."

- Additional reporting AP