11 people were killed in an arson attack at a karaoke bar in Hanoi, Vietnam, according to police news

Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security said the suspected perpetrator admitted to starting the fire after a dispute with staff.

An arson fire at a karaoke café and bar in Hanoi, Vietnam, killed 11 people and injured two others, Vietnamese police said.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security said on Thursday that it had arrested a man who admitted to starting the fire on the ground floor of the building after a dispute with employees.

Police said that rescue workers who rushed to the scene pulled seven people out of the building alive, and two of them were taken to hospital.

Footage circulated on social media showed a multi-storey building engulfed in flames as firefighters worked at the scene while they were surrounded by a crowd of onlookers.

The Lao Dong newspaper quoted a witness as saying: “At that time, we saw many people screaming for help but we could not get closer because the fire spread very quickly, and even with a ladder, we could not climb up.”

Tien Vuong newspaper quoted a witness as saying that there was a strong smell of gasoline at the scene.

The witness said: “Everyone shouted for those inside to flee outside, but no one asked for help.”

CCTV footage published by news site VnExpress showed a man carrying a bucket towards the cafe seconds before the fire started shortly after 11pm (16:00 GMT) on Wednesday.

Fires are a common danger in Vietnam’s crowded urban centers.

Between 2017 and 2022, 433 people were killed in about 17,000 house fires in the country, most of them in urban areas, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

In September last year, 56 people, including four children, were killed and dozens injured in a fire in an apartment building in Hanoi.

Last October, a court in the southern province of Binh Duong sentenced six people, including four police officers, to prison over safety lapses related to a fire at a karaoke complex that killed 32 people in 2022.