Hanoi house explosion leaves one dead, three injured

September 14, 2015 | 09:30

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A man was killed and three others were injured as an explosion purportedly caused by a homemade explosive shook a house in Hanoi on Friday, in what appears to be a revenge act.

The blast broke out at the house of Pham Gia Hai, 43, in an alley in Dong Da District at around 6:30 pm, followed by a large volume of smokes, according to witnesses.

The alley was quickly filled with smokes and what was believed to be gunpowder smell, they added.

Nguyen Dong Dang, 59, a local man, was riding his motorbike past the house at the time of explosion and was killed by the blast overpressure.

One of the three injured victims is Pham Thi Phuong, 38, Hai’s younger sister, who was cooking on the first floor of the house at the time of blast, and the others are passers-by.

Two other members of Hai’s family were staying on the second floor but were unaffected by the explosion.

The injured victims were rushed to the Trang An General Hospital for emergency aid by local residents.

The blast destroyed the entire first floor of the house and also damaged part of a house next door.

The blast destroys the iron folding door of the house. Photo: courtesy of local residents

A police team, led by Major General Nguyen Duc Chung, director of Hanoi Police Department, quickly arrived at the scene to start investing and performed an autopsy on Dang’s body.

An officer from the Hanoi Police Department said Saturday that the blast could be caused by someone who wanted to make revenge using a homemade mine.

The suspect might have carefully plotted the blast so that it would happen during the dinner of Hai’s family in the first floor, according to investigators.

But the reality was not as the suspect had expected as the family members were at different floors at the time of incident.

Police examine the scen of the blast. Photo: Tuoi Tre