World

Survivors of a karaoke bar blaze in Vietnam spoke Thursday of their terror as they tried to escape an inferno which killed over 30 people and has raised questions about fire safety standards in the Southeast Asian nation.

The fire in a dense residential neighbourhood of Thuan An city, north of commercial hub Ho Chi Minh City, spread rapidly through the three-storey building, engulfing the second floor and trapping customers and staff as dense smoke filled the staircase.

Thirty two people were killed and 17 were injured, police said, with many suffering broken bones after the flames forced them to jump from the roof.

Firefighters struggled to enter the building because of the fire’s intensity — and had to knock down part of a wall to get inside. Eight people were found dead in the bar’s toilet.

Do Thanh Tu, who worked at the An Phu karaoke parlour, told state media that he was convinced he would die in the inferno.

“When the fire broke out, I tried to run down to the first floor, but I saw too much fire there, so I ran to the rooftop to find shelter,” he told the VNexpress news site from his hospital bed in Thuan An.

“I saw people up there, many of them were screaming. We thought we would die. Many people jumped. 

“Around half an hour later, rescuers came for us. There was so much smoke I could not breathe.”

Sixty people were inside the 30-room bar when the fire erupted on Tuesday evening. Many employees were sleeping on the highest floor at the time, waiting for their next shift, and saw smoke creeping up the stairs.

Ngan, 20, told VNexpress it stung her nose and eyes, trapping her and her colleagues inside the room. Forced onto the roof, they tried to poke their heads through metal bars and wave their hands, hoping someone would see them.

– Safety worries –

Charred shoes, motorcycle helmets and beer cans littered the ground on Thursday as police led Vietnam’s deputy prime minister around the blackened interior of the bar.

The initial cause was said to be an electrical short circuit, according to authorities in Binh Duong province.

The bar’s fire safety standards had been checked three times — in 2019, 2021 and this year — and had met all the regulations, authorities added.

But it comes after several deadly fires in recent years, including two at karaoke bars in Hanoi, prompting Vietnam’s prime minister to order an investigation as well as an inspection of all high-risk venues.

Police partly blamed drunken singers for the tragedy during a press conference. 

“They were drunk. So when the staff at the karaoke bar informed them about the fire… people in some karaoke rooms didn’t listen,” provincial police chief Trinh Ngoc Quyen said.

“There was one room in which a customer pulled an employee into the room and closed the door.”

Outside the hospital morgue, family members of the victims — some clutching flowers and pictures of their loved ones — queued up to identify their relatives.

Tran Thi Bich Van, 32, lost her husband, brother and brother-in-law in the blaze.

She said her brother had been visiting them from his home on the southern island of Phu Quoc and all three men had left for the karaoke bar after dinner.

“At around 10:40 pm the police called me, and at that moment I knew they had been in the fire,” she told AFP.

“His body is badly disfigured,” she said, describing her husband, through tears. “But his face remains bright.”

Sri Lanka added 37 new senior posts to its government on Thursday, sparking a social media backlash over “useless” public spending in the middle of its worst economic crisis on record.

The country of 22 million has suffered months of rampant inflation, severe shortages of essential goods and widespread protests, pushing it to default on its foreign debt in April.

The 37 new state ministers will not accept their modest salaries, but they are entitled to three cars each with fuel, state housing, bodyguards, salaries for personal staff and free stamps, the government said.

On social media, some Sri Lankans vented frustration over the use of public funds.

“No pot to pee… but 37 state ministers!” tweeted user Soraya Deen.

Mirhani Rahees added on the platform: “Spending on these useless state ministers… we have to tighten our belts. There goes my tax money in flames.”

Another user, Krishna Perera, accused the government of having “no commitment to human rights, economic reform, or accountability”. 

The new members all come from the coalition of former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled Sri Lanka in July after protesters overran his official residence, but he returned to the country last week.

Among the new ministers is Rajapaksa’s nephew, Sashindra, who takes the irrigation portfolio.

The 37 new posts are in addition to the 20-member cabinet of President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took over in late July following Rajapaksa’s exit.

Wickremesinghe, a six-time prime minister, has only one seat in the 225-member parliament and depends on Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party, the largest bloc.

Officials close to Wickremesinghe said his attempts to form a broad unity government were yet to materialise as the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) had refused to join.

Sri Lanka is in talks with the International Monetary Fund to finalise a $2.9-billion bailout that requires Colombo to raise taxes and privatise loss-making state enterprises — both politically unpopular moves.

In a new report released Tuesday, the UN Human Rights Council urged Wickremesinghe to prosecute those responsible for economic crimes that bankrupted the country.

The report said a culture of impunity for war-time atrocities during the decades-long civil war that ended in 2009 had led to the economic crisis which has undermined the rights of all communities.

Around half of Japan’s ruling party lawmakers have had dealings with the Unification Church, an official said Thursday, after the assassination of ex-premier Shinzo Abe heightened scrutiny of the religious organisation also sometimes known as the Moonies.

The man suspected of shooting Abe dead in July allegedly targeted the former prime minister believing he was linked to the sect.

Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi said a probe found some lawmakers had accepted support for election campaigns from the church and its spin-off groups.

Other LDP lawmakers had attended meetings or paid fees to the organisation, whose members are sometimes colloquially referred to as “Moonies” after Korean founder Sun Myung Moon.

Of 379 elected LDP lawmakers, 179 “had some sort of links” with the Unification Church, Motegi told reporters.

“We take the results seriously. We honestly feel sorry, and we’ll make sure the party no longer has any relationship at all” with the church, he said.

Last week, Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said LDP members must cut ties with the group, following controversial revelations of its links with a raft of Japanese politicians.

The Unification Church has condemned Abe’s murder and denied accusations of coercive fundraising tactics among its members, but Kishida’s government has seen its approval ratings drop in recent weeks as more details have emerged.

“Nearly 90 percent” of LDP lawmakers that attended gatherings hosted by organisations linked to the church told the probe they were not aware of the hosts’ affiliation, Motegi said.

“Our awareness was lacking, and that’s all the more reason that more efforts need to be made to raise awareness” of the issue, he added.

Kishida’s approval ratings have also fallen due to anger over a state funeral to be held for Abe on September 27, which the government expects to cost up to 1.7 billion yen ($12 million).

The assassination has reignited years of controversy over the Unification Church, including accusations that some of its believers went broke after making ruinous donations to the group.

Last month, the organisation’s Japanese branch said it had “made concerted efforts to ensure that donations are not made which would be large in proportion to a person’s assets”.

The church says Abe was never a registered member or advisor, although he spoke at events organised by affiliated groups.

From the hills in the west, the Ukrainian army shells Russian positions. From the east, Russian forces return fire.

Caught in the middle are the last residents of the town of Siversk.

Located in a part of the Donbas region still under Ukrainian control, the town had around 11,000 inhabitants before Russia invaded in February.

There are now just 2,000 — most of them elderly people who have nowhere to go.

They have been living under constant shelling since the Russian army approached after taking over the nearby city of Lysychansk.

“I live in this madness. We are constantly walking the line between life and death,” said Alla, 55, who declined to give her surname.

On the road in front of her home, Alla spoke for her neighbours — a dozen or so people nodding in agreement around her.

“We live in the cellar. We do not get any humanitarian aid. We’re afraid to go into the garden. We have no crop to harvest, no electricity, no water,” she said.

“Psychologically, it is very difficult to live with constant explosions day and night… We don’t know where they will hit,” she said.

– ‘I will die in Ukraine’ –

As she spoke, several explosions could be heard in the background — outgoing fire from Ukrainian positions, which quickly got a response from the Russian side.

One neighbour, Viktor Markov, 55, showed AFP a rocket that had fallen recently on an empty house in the neighbourhood.

The rocket, at least three metres (10 feet) long, pierced through the roof and implanted itself in the basement but failed to detonate.

“I was in the Soviet army. I was in some hotspots but I never saw anything like this,” said Markov, adding that he could never work out if the shelling was Russian or Ukrainian.

“It puts me on edge,” he said on the verge of tears.

“I was born in Ukraine and I will die in Ukraine. We are not against anybody, we are not against the government,” he said.

– ‘Don’t see a great future’ –

In another part of the town, where Ukrainian and Russian lines are closer, one in two homes have been completely destroyed.

Tetiana Deinega, 90, who lives in one of the remaining houses, was picking herbs in front of her home — oblivious to the shelling.

Most of the windows in the house have been blown out.

Deinega said she was waiting for her children, who live in Russia, to come and find her.

“When they will be allowed to come, I will leave. Without them, I’m not going anywhere,” she said.

Deinega said she was not lonely and was being looked after by other people in the neighbourhood.

If her children do not come, she said she would stay.

“We believe this is Ukraine, our native land. Whether good or bad, it’s ours,” she said.

Asked about the dangers of staying, she replied: “Maybe I will go to bed tonight and not wake up tomorrow.”

About 15 kilometres away, in the small village of Kalenyky, things were calmer even though the front line is still nearby.

Valentyna, 72, said she was living with no electricity but had a well for water.

The village is intact but there is anxiety.

“I don’t see a great future. We will not be able to think about the future until this is all over,” she said.