Rescuers said yesterday they had pulled 60 bodies, including those of four foreigners, from the smoking ruins of an office block in Vietnam's commercial capital and warned that the death toll could rise.
Some 500 people were inside Ho Chi Minh City's seven-storey Saigon International Business Center, home to many foreign companies, when the fire broke out on Tuesday, and scores are still missing.
Diplomats said that at least two Britons, one American and a Croatian were among the dead, and other foreign nationals were feared to be among the missing.
PHOTO: AP
Eyewitnesses described how terrified workers leapt to their deaths from the roof to escape the searing heat as the city's firefighters battled in vain to bring the fire under control.
The Ho Chi Minh City-based Tuoi Tre newspaper and the Lao Dong daily said more than 100 people were killed in the blaze, a figure disputed by city officials.
Nguyen Thien Nhan, vice chairman of the city's People's Committee, told reporters 102 people had been injured and that the official death toll stood at 60. However, he conceded the number of victims was expected to rise.
He said the building had been partitioned into scores of separate offices, and that the dividing walls had collapsed and trapped many people inside.
"We think there are still many bodies trapped under these collapsed walls," Nguyen Phien Nhan said. "It is a tragedy of great human suffering."
Communist Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh and Vu Khoan, deputy prime minister, flew down from Hanoi to assess the situation and pass on their condolences to the families of the bereaved, foreign ministry sources said.
Investigators and rescue workers could be seen sifting through the charred hulk of the building in the center of the booming southern city, which has become a magnet for foreign investment.
Local residents said the fire was triggered by an electrical fault, but officials in the city formerly known as Saigon said more time was needed before they could identify the cause.
"At the moment it is likely this is an accident. There are no signs of sabotage or terrorism," said Nhan.
Phan Xuan Bien, a senior Communist Party official, said that initial reports described "green flames which could indicate it was caused by gas for the air-conditioning system."
Tran Minh Chinh, a shoe repairman, said people flung themselves from windows to escape the flames.
"It was horrible. People were jumping from both sides of the building. I saw many of them lying on the ground burnt and bloody," he said.
"I saw people standing on the roof screaming down to us below to help them. The flames were upon them but we could do nothing to help, nor could the firefighters, who did not have ladders that were long enough."
The city's deputy fire chief, Lam Tan Buu, said 64 fire trucks had been scrambled to fight the blaze -- including some military vehicles and others from Tan Son Nhat International Airport.
He said firefighters had been prevented from entering parts of the building, the ground floor of which houses around 90 shops, because of the intense heat of the smouldering debris.
However, Buu said he hoped to finish the search and recovery mission by the end of the day.
The fire raged for more than five hours before firefighters brought it under control.
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