Dozens of people died in a fire at an apartment block in Hanoi, Vietnamese state media said yesterday, with witnesses reporting screams from inside and a small boy thrown from the building.
The fire started just before midnight on Tuesday in the parking floor of the 10-floor building, an area packed with motorbikes, witnesses said.
More than 100 people managed to escape or were pulled from the building by rescuers, with authorities rushing 54 to hospital, including “dozens of dead,” the Vietnam News Agency said.
Photo by AFP
At least three children were among the dead, online state newspaper Viettimes reported.
“I heard a lot of shouts for help. We could not help them much,” said Hoa, a woman who lives near the block and gave only one name.
“The apartment is so closed with no escape route, impossible for the victims to get out,” she said.
Photo: AFP
The blaze was out by yesterday morning, but rescuers still struggled for hours thereafter to access the building, which is down a narrow alley in a residential area of southwest Hanoi.
The complex’s small balconies were surrounded by iron bars, with the apartment block having only a single exit — and no emergency ladder on the outside.
About 150 people lived in the complex, authorities said.
Another witness, Huong, said a small boy was thrown from a high floor to help him escape the flames.
“I was about to sleep when I smelled something. I went outside and saw the fire,” she said.
“The smoke was everywhere. There was a little boy thrown from a high floor; I do not know whether he survived or not although people used a mattress to catch him,” she said.
Neighbours reported several others jumping from the block.
“There was a middle-aged woman jumping down onto my terrace here. She hit her arm and broke it. Another person also jumped down here and broke their legs,” Dao To Nga said. “A child was put into a plastic basket and lowered down.”
Some were able to flee the building using her roof.
“This rooftop of my family helped 14 to 15 people escape,” she said.
One survivor, Nguyen Thi Minh Hong, said that her family waited in their seventh-floor apartment at the back of the building for five hours before help arrived.
“We were sleeping when suddenly we felt very hot because the power had been cut. My husband opened the door and we heard people shouting for help and we saw smoke,” the 34-year-old said.
The family, which included her two children aged six and nine, tried to escape to the roof but were forced back into their apartment due to the heat of the fire.
“I was so scared. We stayed inside the room for five hours... I just tried to calm my kids down by holding a wet towel to their face,” she said from Hanoi’s Bach Mai Hospital. “We were between life and death.”
‘SHARP COMPETITION’: Australia is to partner with US-based Lockheed Martin to make guided multiple launch rocket systems, an Australian defense official said Australia is to ramp up missile manufacturing under a plan unveiled yesterday by a top defense official, who said bolstering weapons stockpiles would help keep would-be foes at bay. Australian Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy said the nation would establish a homegrown industry to produce long-range guided missiles and other much-needed munitions. “Why do we need more missiles? Strategic competition between the United States and China is a primary feature of Australia’s security environment,” Conroy said in a speech. “That competition is at its sharpest in our region, the Indo-Pacific.” Australia is to partner with US-based weapons giant Lockheed Martin to make
BEYOND WASHINGTON: Although historically the US has been the partner of choice for military exercises, Jakarta has been trying to diversify its partners, an analyst said Indonesia’s first joint military drills with Russia this week signal that new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto would seek a bigger role for Jakarta on the world stage as part of a significant foreign policy shift, analysts said. Indonesia has long maintained a neutral foreign policy and refuses to take sides in the Russia-Ukraine conflict or US-China rivalry, but Prabowo has called for stronger ties with Moscow despite Western pressure on Jakarta. “It is part of a broader agenda to elevate ties with whomever it may be, regardless of their geopolitical bloc, as long as there is a benefit for Indonesia,” said Pieter
TIGHT CAMPAIGN: Although Harris got a boost from an Iowa poll, neither candidate had a margin greater than three points in any of the US’ seven battleground states US Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live (SNL) in the final days before the election, as she and former US president and Republican presidential nominees make a frantic last push to win over voters in a historically close campaign. The first lines Harris spoke as she sat across from Maya Rudolph, their outfits identical, was drowned out by cheers from the audience. “It is nice to see you Kamala,” Harris told Rudolph with a broad grin she kept throughout the sketch. “And I’m just here to remind you, you got this.” In sync, the two said supporters
Pets are not forgotten during Mexico’s Day of the Dead celebrations, when even Fido and Tiger get a place at the altars Mexican families set up to honor their deceased loved ones, complete with flowers, candles and photographs. Although the human dead usually get their favorite food or drink placed on altars, the nature of pet food can make things a little different. The holiday has roots in Mexican pre-Hispanic customs, as does the reverence for animals. The small, hairless dogs that Mexicans kept before the Spanish conquest were believed to help guide their owners to the afterlife, and were sometimes given