Thousands of people in southern Vietnam have turned out to say goodbye to a whale whose corpse fishermen found floating off the country's coast, an official said Tuesday.

The whale, estimated to weigh about 15 tons was buried during a ceremony lasting about three hours beside the sea in southern Bac Lieu province.

"A burial ceremony for the whale took place this morning and local fishermen believe that the animal will bring them luck at sea," Le Dong Duong, director of the provincial department of maritime resource exploitation, told AFP.

Up to 12,000 people, many of them fishermen and some from neighbouring provinces, had come to see the corpse and participate in religious rites since Monday, he added.

Fishermen discovered the dead whale late Sunday and spent about 15 hours towing it back to the coast, Duong added.

"We don't yet know what caused its death, or its age, because we didn't see any injuries on its body," he said, recalling that a similar case occurred four or five years ago in the province.

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