A Destructive Blast Occured in Central Viet Nam

The place looked as if there was a strong typhoon had just gone through: trees with torn up leaves; broken bricks, roof tiles scattered around as two third of the house was demolished. There was not even enough space inside the house for the coffin. Thus it was put in the front yard, sheltered by cheap plastic tarpaulin. Next to it sat two thin and small kids, one boy and one girl, and a woman. All three of them wore funeral�s white bands on their heads. They sat quietly on the wet ground under the tiny temporary shelter, staring out in the rain.

There was a group of locals gathered around a young lady in the front yard, donating their small bank notes for the funeral ceremony of the passed away guy and for medical treatments for the injured guy. The scene was quiet and devastated looking.

The accident happened at 17:30 hours on August 10th, 2005. There were all together 4 people at or near the scene. However, nobody really knew what exactly Nguyen Ngoc was doing as he was alone in a corner out side the house. His younger half brother, Tran Lai was inside the house and Ngoc�s two children were pilling fire woods in the front yard. One common thing that was confirmed by all locals that the explosion was very loud; and, just by a quick glance, everything within a radius of 5 meters was all destroyed.



Ngoc was killed right on the spot. The blast took him really hard as Ngoc had completely lost the lower half of his body from the waist down, included his two hands. Lai, at the time was separated from the blast by the house�s wall, also received a tiny frag in his head. The two children received minor cuts on their faces and back from broken pieces of roof tiles and bricks that felt on them.
The seat of the explosion was a small hole about 25cms in diameter and 15cms deep. According to MAGs technicians, it was possibly a 76mm projectile that went off on or near the surface while standing on end. A motorbike lay close to the remains of the building also had sustained damages.
After the accident, Lai was taken to local health center for first aid and transferred to Quang Tri General Hospital in the following morning for intensive treatment.