HANOI: A court docket in Vietnam on Wednesday (October 30) jailed six individuals, together with 4 cops, over a fireplace that broke out at a karaoke bar two years in the past, killing 32 individuals.
The hearth in a province close to the business hub of Ho Chi Minh City has shocked Vietnam and led to the closure of 1000’s of karaoke bars nationwide for failing to adjust to hearth laws.
The court docket within the southern province of Binh Duong convicted the bar’s proprietor, a contractor concerned in its building and 4 cops on prices of violating hearth laws and negligence.
Bar proprietor Le Anh Xuan was sentenced to eight years in jail, whereas the bar’s hearth sprinkler system contractor was sentenced to 5 years.
Four cops had been jailed for between 4 and 7 and a half years.
In his ultimate phrases in court docket final week, bar proprietor Le Anh Xuan apologized to the victims and their households, saying “my errors have brought on enormous losses.”
Flames engulfed the second ground of the 30-room An Phu karaoke constructing in Binh Duong in September 2022, trapping prospects and employees as thick smoke crammed the steps and blocked the emergency exit.
Many crowded onto a balcony to flee the flames, which rapidly unfold by the picket inside, whereas others had been pressured to leap from the constructing.
32 individuals died within the inferno, 17 males and 15 girls.
Police officers had been accused of being concerned within the design and approval of the bar’s hearth sprinkler system.
Vietnam is recurrently the scene of lethal fires – 56 individuals had been killed in an condominium catastrophe in Hanoi final 12 months – and the Binh Duong hearth prompted a nationwide crackdown on karaoke bars that did not adjust to hearth laws.
More than two-thirds of the nation’s roughly 15,000 karaoke bars have been pressured to shut, state media reported, citing police sources.
