Eleven people died and two others were injured Thursday, December 19 in the fire at a karaoke bar in Hanoi, said the police, who favored the possibility of a criminal act and arrested a suspect. The building, located in the west of Vietnam’s capital, is blackened and largely destroyed by flames, according to images published by state media, which also show piles of twisted metal scattered nearby .
Police said they were alerted to the fire around 11 p.m. (1600 GMT), when the building had “many people trapped” within it. Rescuers rushed to the scene and managed to get seven people out alive, two of whom were taken to hospital. Eleven people were found dead. Witnesses told state media that the fire was so big that no one dared to try to rescue those inside. “We shouted for the trapped victims, but we didn’t hear anyone calling for help from the building” Nguyen Minh Hung, who was nearby, told the Vietnamese newspaper Dan Tri.
Suspect arrested
“The police suspect that the cafe was (deliberately) fire”et “arrested the perpetrator”Hanoi police said in a statement. Video surveillance images taken from a nearby location show a man with a bucket entering the perimeter shortly before the fire broke out, state media said. According to the police, the arrested suspect had gone to this karaoke bar to drink a beer before arguing with the staff. He then bought gasoline which he poured into an area with many motorcycles which then caught fire.
In October, six people including four police officers were jailed for the fire at another karaoke bar in 2022, in which 32 people died. The disaster, which occurred in a province near the southern business center of Ho Chi Minh City, shocked the country and led to the closure of thousands of establishments of the same type across Vietnam for non-compliance with anti- fire. More than two thirds of the country’s approximately 15,000 karaoke bars have had to close their doors, according to state media, relying on police sources.
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