Hanoi [Vietnam], December 19 : As many as 11 people were killed and two others were injured after a suspected arson attack at a cafe and karaoke bar in Vietnam's Hanoi, Al Jazeera reported, citing police.
In a statement on Thursday, Vietnam's Ministry of Public Security said that it had arrested a man who admitted to starting the blaze on the building's ground floor after a dispute with the staff.
Rescue workers who rushed to the site of the incident brought seven people out of the building alive, two of whom were taken to the hospital, police said.
Videos that surfaced on social media showed a multistorey building engulfed in flames as firefighters tried to control the blaze while being surrounded by onlookers.
"At that time, we saw many people screaming for help but could not approach because the fire spread very quickly, and even with a ladder, we could not climb up," the Lao Dong newspaper quoted a witness as saying.
A witness said that there was a smell of petrol at the spot, Al Jazeera reported, citing The Tien Phong newspaper. The witness said, "Everyone shouted for those inside to run outside, but no one called for help."
CCTV footage published by the VnExpress news site seemed to show a man holding a bucket, walking towards the cafe seconds before the fire began shortly after 11 pm (local time) on Wednesday.
Fire incidents are common in Vietnam's tightly packed urban centres. As many as 433 people were killed in some 17,000 houses in Vietnam between 2017-2022, majority of them in urban areas, according to Vietnam's Ministry of Public Security.
In September 2023, 56 people, including four children, were kiled and dozens injured in a fire incident at an apartment block in Hanoi, Al Jazeera reported. Earlier in October, a court in southern Binh Duong province jailed six people, including four police officers, over safety lapses related to a fire at a karaoke complex that claimed the lives of 32 people in 2022.
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