A fire at a residential building in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, killed dozens of people, local media reported, naming at least three children among the victims.
More than 50 people were taken to hospitals and dozens died, the staterun Vietnam News Agency reported.
According to the agency, emergency services managed to rescue 70 people trapped by the flames. Viettimes, another official media outlet, reported that three children died in the tragedy.
The fire was brought under control and rescue teams searched for bodies and survivors throughout the morning.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh ordered an investigation to be launched.
The head of government visited the scene of the tragedy and then went to a hospital where he spoke to some of the victims.
This could be one of the deadliest fires in recent years in Vietnam, a Southeast Asian country marked by several cases of violations of basic safety rules.
The fire broke out shortly before midnight in the building’s underground parking space.
“We were sleeping when we suddenly felt very hot because there was no electricity,” Nguyen Thi Minh Hong, who escaped the flames and was treated at a hospital in Hanoi, told AFP.
“I was very scared, we stayed in the room for five hours,” explained the 34yearold woman, who lives on the seventh floor of the building. “I tried to calm my (two) children by putting a wet towel on their faces,” he added.
“We were between life and death,” he said.
Much of the 10story building, located on a narrow street in a residential neighborhood in Hanoi, was engulfed in flames. Firefighters had to climb the facade to reach some affected areas.
Nearly 150 people live in the building, whose balconies are protected by railings that isolate them from the outside world, according to authorities.
“There is no emergency exit, it was impossible for the victims to escape,” Hoa, a resident of the neighborhood who did not give her last name, told AFP.
“We heard cries for help but couldn’t help.”
Another witness, Huong, saw the moment a child was thrown out of a window to escape the flames.
“There was smoke everywhere. They threw a little boy from a high floor. “I don’t know if he survived and if people managed to catch the child with a mattress,” Huong said.
The tragedy occurred just two days after US President Joe Biden’s visit to the country, which lasted several hours.
Vietnam has seen several deadly fires in recent years, raising suspicions about a lack of enforcement of basic safety regulations.
A year ago, 32 people were killed in a fire in a karaoke bar near Ho Chi Minh City (south).