VietNamNet Bridge - Three foreigners and a Vietnamese died in the fireworks blast at Hanoi’s My Dinh National Stadium on October 6.

Police said that the victims were a 38-year-old Singaporean woman, two German men, 55 and 56 years old and a Vietnamese, an official in the Ministry of National Defense’s Z121 Company.

Two other Vietnamese and a German who were injured in the explosion are now at the Vietnam-Germany Hospital and the National Burn Hospital.

According to the website of the Singaporean Foreign Ministry, the Singaporean victim in this blast is the wife of Singapore-based Glorious group’s director.

The German Embassy in Hanoi on October 7 confirmed that two Germans died in the fireworks blast but didn’t release any information about the victims.

However, AFP and DPA said that the two dead Germans belonged to a group of 15 Germans working for a Singaporean company.

The explosion happened when two containers of fireworks stored in the stadium for the fireworks show scheduled on October 10 for Hanoi’s 1,000th birthday celebrations went off. It is said that the blast was caused by “carelessness during transportation” of the two fireworks containers by the local International Investment Trade and Service Company, or Interserco.

Hanoi Police Agency’s director, General Nguyen Duc Nhanh, said the accident will not affect the fireworks show on October 10.

According to plan, the fireworks show on October 10 at the My Dinh National Stadium will last for 20 minutes and it will be organized by 40 experts from Singapore, Germany, Hong Kong and 28 Vietnamese experts.

The organizer imported three containers weighing 40 tons of fireworks from Italy, USA and China and 13 containers of equipment to serve the fireworks show, the largest ever in Vietnam.

The organizer has said that the fireworks show will not be canceled. Interserco has bought fireworks from a local firm to compensate for the shortage caused by the blast on October 6.

In related news, the Hanoi Party Committee on October 8 announced to cancel fireworks displays at 28 sites in Hanoi on October 10 to celebrate the city’s 1000^th anniversary. The fund for these fireworks shows will be donated to flood victims in central Vietnam. By October 7, at least 52 people died in flood.

Therefore, there will have only one fireworks show at the My Dinh National Stadium on October 10.

PV