French infantry with armored units went through Haiphong fighting house to house against the Viet Minh. French aircraft bombed and strafed while the cruiser Suffren, in the harbor, shelled the city, demolishing whole neighborhoods of flimsy structures. Refugees streamed into nearby provinces with their belongings in baskets and on bicycles, and naval guns shelled them as well. Days passed before the French finally overcame the last Viet Minh snipers. The Vietnamese claimed that the French actions caused 20,000 deaths. A French admiral later estimated that no more than 6,000 Vietnamese had been killed. Vu Quoc Uy, the chairman of the Haiphong municipal committee, said in an interview in 1981 that the toll had been between 500 and 1000.