Vietnam’s top leader Nguyen Phu Trong has died at the age of 80.
The country’s state-run media have reported the Communist Party head died on Friday at a hospital in the capital Hanoi.
Trong assumed the top position in 2011 after serving as the chair of parliament.
He was elected as the Communist Party’s General Secretary again for his third term at the party congress in 2021 despite the limit of two consecutive terms or 10 years stipulated by the party constitution.
The party had announced on Thursday that Trong was letting go of his duties to focus on his medical treatment, without mentioning his condition.