Dozens of people were killed in a major fire in an apartment building in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday. International news agencies write that seventy people have been rescued, of whom more than fifty have been taken to hospital. It is still unclear exactly how many victims are involved.
The nine-storey apartment building would have about 45 households. The fire broke out around midnight, but the narrow street where the apartment building is located in a residential part of the capital made the rescue operation difficult. According to the Vietnamese news agency VNA, fire trucks could not reach the building and firefighters had to pull water hoses through the alley.
Video footage of rescue workers running through narrow alleys with stretchers and ladders is circulating on social media. Images shared on X, formerly Twitter, show a lot of smoke coming from the building. The fire is now under control.