Dozens dead, over 50 people hospitalized after fire in Hanoi apartment, authorities say ‘very serious fire’

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Dozens of people died in a fire at an apartment block in Vietnam's capital Hanoi, state media said Wednesday, with witnesses reporting screams from inside and a small child was thrown from the building. The fire started just before midnight on Tuesday (1700 GMT) in the parking floor of the 10-storey building, witnesses said, an area packed with residents' motorbikes. "Authorities have rescued about 70 people, rushing to hospital 54 people, including dozens of dead," the official Vietnam News Agency said.

"This is a very serious fire," the statement said. Photos by AFP photographers on the scene showed flames and smoke billowing from barred balconies. The blaze was out by Wednesday morning, with rescuers struggling to access the building -- which is down a narrow alley in a residential area of southwest Hanoi.

The building's small balconies were surrounded by iron, with the apartment block having only a single exit -- and no emergency ladder on the outside. Around 150 people lived in the complex, authorities said. "I heard a lot of shouts for help.

We could not help them much," a woman, who gave only one name Hoa and lives near the block, told AFP at the site. "The apartment is so closed with no escape route, impossible for the victims to get out." Another witness, Huong, said a small child was thrown from a high floor to escape the flames. "I was about to sleep when I smelled something.

I went outside and saw the fire," she said. "The smoke was everywhere. There was a little boy thrown from a high floor, I don't know whether he survived or not although people used a mattress to catch him," she said.