HANOI – Sunday, March 20, 2016 16:26
The large crater caused by the blast in Hanoi on March 19. Photo: Minh Chien
thanhniennews: The Ministry of Public Security has found traces of explosives and bomb debris at the site of a blast in Hanoi on Saturday that killed four people, injured 10 others and damaged more than 120 houses.
The explosion at about 3.10 p.m. at a scrap metal trading business seriously tore through 36 houses and damaged 95 others, and left a large crater in Van Phu residential area, Ha Dong District, the police said. Many vehicles along the street were damaged too.
Although the police was yet to officially pinpoint the cause of the blast, they speculated that it was ignited when the shop owner tried to cut open a bomb using a blow torch.
One of the perished victims was Pham Van Cuong, 42, who had rent the house for his scrap metal shop since 2013 and reportedly often used a blow torch to cut large scrap metal pieces, police said.
On March 19, he asked a neighbor to help him bring a rusty cylinder to the sidewalk and then used a blow torch to cut it open.
“High temperature from the blow torch has ignited the explosion with extremely serious consequences,” VnExpress quoted a report by Hanoi Police Department as saying.
Police found metal debris of what they believe to be a bomb.
1 / 4
The scene after the blast in Hanoi on March 19. Photo: Minh Chien
From Chuck Searcy – International advisor of Project RENEW in Vietnam
Chuck Searcy
Ironic, I’m traveling today in Quang Tri Province with a Veterans For Peace delegation, looking at one of the most dangerously contaminated areas of Viet Nam, the former DMZ between north and south where more than 8,000 people have been killed or injured by unexploded ordnance since the war ended in 1975. Many of those casualties have been scrap metal collectors tampering with UXO.
Through intense risk education and awareness training by Project RENEW, partner NPA, and other organizations, and daily clearance operations, the number of accidents in Quang Tri has dropped dramatically.
Today our VFP group witnessed one demolition of two cluster bombs carried out by a RENEW / NPA team in a rice field near several houses. The explosion was executed professionally, safely. Our team members have destroyed thousands of bombs over the years, without a single accident.
If the police’s conclusion is correct, it is truly tragic that an unsuspecting Hanoi man caused such devastation — presumably not fully understanding the danger — in a crowded urban neighborhood, where such incidents are rare, almost unheard of.
A school child today at a risk education event at a rural school correctly answered the question, “How many provinces in Viet Nam have a bomb problem?” The answer: 63, every single province including every city in Viet Nam.
We now have a tragically graphic example of that hard reality, with the explosion in Ha Noi on Saturday.
Chuck Searcy
Số lượt thíchSố lượt thích
This is my concern. If it was a bomb. Can the police investigate where was the bomb from? Can it be from any other leaking sources beside the potential Unexploded Ordnance remained from the VN war?
Many industrial gas cylinders can look like a bomb
Số lượt thíchSố lượt thích