56 Killed In Vietnam Apartment Fire, Country’s Deadliest In 20 Years

Hanoi, Vietnam: 

Fifty-six people died in a fire at an apartment block in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi, police said Wednesday, with witnesses reporting screams from inside and a small boy thrown from the building.

Vietnam’s deadliest fire in 20 years started just before midnight on Tuesday (1700 GMT) in the parking floor of the 10-storey building, an area packed with motorbikes, witnesses said.

“56 people have been killed and 37 people injured,” Hanoi police department said in a statement.

At least three children were among the dead, state media reported.

The owner of the apartment block has been arrested on suspicion of violating fire prevention regulations, Hanoi police said.

A woman who lives near the block, who gave her name only as Hoa, said: “I heard a lot of shouts for help. We could not help them much.”

“The apartment is so closed with no escape route, impossible for the victims to get out,” she told AFP at the site.