Dozens dead after fire rips through apartment block in Vietnam as child thrown from building to escape the flames
DOZENS of people have died in an apartment block fire in Vietnam, with a small boy thrown from the burning building.
Witnesses reported hearing screams coming from inside the 10-storey block as people trapped inside desperately tried to flee.
Emergency services rescued around 70 people as 54 were rushed to hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital.
Three children are among the dozens who died in the horror blaze.
The fire started just before midnight on Tuesday on the parking floor, an area packed with motorbikes, according to local reports.
Hoa, a woman who lives nearby, 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.”
The building, which was home to around 150 people, had only a single exit.
With no emergency fire escape on the outside of the block, and balconies surrounded by iron bars, desperate residents were trapped inside.
Another witness, Huong, described seeing a young boy being thrown from a high floor in a last-ditch attempt to save his life.
“I was about to sleep when I smelled something. I went outside and saw the fire,” she said.
“The smoke was everywhere. There was a little boy thrown from a high floor, I don’t know whether he survived or not although people used a mattress to catch him.”
Emergency services managed to put out the fire by Wednesday morning.
But rescuers still struggled to access the destroyed complex, which is down a narrow alley in a residential area of southwest Hanoi.
The deputy prime minister, Tran Luu Quang, visited the scene on Wednesday morning, state media said.