VIETNAM FIREWORK FACTORY BLAST KILLS 24

HANOI -  Vietnamese police on Sunday raised the death toll from a blast at a fireworks factory to 24 blaming other explosives also stored at the site for the accident which also left many injured.

“At least 24 people were killed — we have identified 16 bodies,” Phu Tho policeman Pham Quang Minh said, raising the number of dead from 21 in Saturday’s incident.

• Minh said more than 20 people had been injured, lower than the nearly 100 initially reported to have been hurt in the explosion at a military complex in northern Vietnam.
• Plumes of black smoke billowed from the complex, around 120 kilometres north of Hanoi, as fireworks exploded uncontrollably for several hours on Saturday before the blaze was contained.
• The explosion prompted the evacuation of some 2,000 people living near the area, most of whom had returned by Sunday.

In the hours after the explosion local hospitals were swamped with victims, some with horrific burns. The most critical cases were moved to a specialist burns centre on the outskirts of Hanoi. In 2010, fireworks being prepared at Hanoi’s My Dinh stadium for use in the city’s 1,000th anniversary celebrations exploded, killing three foreigners and one Vietnamese national.

Source: Agencies