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Vietnam will hold this week 's national funeral and national mourning for President Tran Dai Quang, who died last week of a viral disease at the age of 61.
Flags will fly half-time and entertainment activities will be canceled at the two-day funeral that begins Wednesday, the Communist Party and the government announced.
Quang will be buried on Thursday in his native village in Ninh Binh province in the north of the country, some 115 kilometers south of Hanoi.
His death is a "great loss for our party, our state and our people," the announcement said.
He died Friday at the Hanoi Hospital. According to state media, a government doctor said he died as a result of a rare virus, but reports have not identified him.
World leaders sent their condolences.
President Donald Trump, with whom Quang organized his first state visit to Communist country last year, called Quang "a great friend of the United States" while Chinese President Xi Jinping said than
Quang, a career security officer, rose through the ranks to become Minister of Public Safety in 2011 and was elected President of the Nation in April 2016 by the National Assembly.
Vice President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh has been appointed interim president. No date has been given for the election of a new president.
The other main leaders of the country are Party Secretary General Nguyen Phu Trong, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and National Assembly Speaker Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan. Analysts say Quang's death is unlikely to shake up the communist country's collective policy.
