A fire that ripped through a karaoke bar killed 13 people and injured two police officers in the Vietnamese capital, an official said yesterday.
The blaze erupted on Tuesday afternoon in a multistory building in Hanoi’s commercial Cau Giay District and quickly spread to other floors and adjacent buildings, local official The Chung said.
Photographs showed plumes of smoke billowing out of the building as firefighters in cranes doused the flames, with cars and motorbikes outside also burning.
Photo: EPA
“Hundreds of firefighters and police officers were mobilized to extinguish the fire,” Chung said.
He added that two police officers were being treated after they were injured trying to put out the blaze.
Crowds yesterday looked on as officials inspected the blackened building and its gutted entrance, with charred motorbikes and other wreckage spilling out onto the sidewalk.
“I was carrying my stuff when I saw the fire suddenly start,” said Do Thi Kha, 77, a food vendor in the area. “The fire spread over to two or three next-door buildings before I saw fire trucks come in. It was terrible. I was terrified. They did not have enough water to extinguish the fire.”
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has ordered police to immediately investigate the cause of the fire and “seriously punish any wrongdoing,” according to the government’s Web site.
He also asked local authorities to closely inspect karaoke bars and restaurants for fire safety protocols and equipment, the statement added.
Blazes are common at houses, bars and restaurants in Vietnam, where fire prevention and firefighting is limited.
In May 2014, five people burned to death in a fire at a karaoke bar in Hanoi after an electrical fault triggered a massive blaze. Another karaoke bar in the city went up in flames in September this year, but no casualties were reported.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese