Dozens killed, injured in building fire in Hanoi
(Update: adds death toll)
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Sep 13 (EFE).- At least 56 people died in a fire in an apartment building in Hanoi, Vietnamese police said Wednesday.
The authorities, who have detained the owner of the building to investigate whether safety regulations were breached, have identified 39 of the 56 people who died as a result of Tuesday night’s fire, reported the Vietnamese portal VNExpress.
As of Wednesday morning, 70 people had been rescued and 54 of them (including children) had been hospitalized. An estimated 150 or so people lived in the property.
One of the nearby hospitals, Bach Mai, has admitted 26 patients from the fire (seven of them children) and said that two of them died while another was in critical condition.
The fire broke out shortly before midnight on Tuesday night in a small 10-storey apartment building located on a 200-square meter (2152 square feet) plot in Hanoi’s Thanh Xuan district.
Some residents jumped into the street to escape the flames and others climbed onto the roof to call for help.
The causes of the fire, which has been extinguished, were still being investigated. EFE
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