Local police from the northern province of Bac Ninh has officially decided to prosecute Nguyen Van Tien, the owner of scrap that exploded on Wednesday morning, killing two children and injuring nine people in Yen Phong District’s Quan Do Village.

Nguyen Van Tien at the local police station on Wednesday.

Nguyen Tu Quynh, chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, said Tiến, 54, of Yên Phong District’s Văn Môn Commune, was remanded into custody on the same day to investigate for illegally storing and trading military weapons under Item 3, Article 304 of the 2015 Penal Code.

Colonel Pham Hong Son, head of the provincial Police Department, said Tien admitted to the police that he had bought seven tonnes of old cartridges from a staff member of the Technology Centre for Bomb and Mine Disposal under the Army’s Engineering Command since January 2016 to disassemble scrap. The scrap was collected at a warehouse where the explosion occurred.

Four nearby houses collapsed in the explosion and damaged  dozens of others within a diameter of 500m were damaged. The explosion created a gaping hole at the scene, measuring 4m in width and 20m in length.

In a related move, Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh ordered the local administration to work with the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of National Defence to identify the cause of the explosion.

Bình wants a report on the case to be submitted to him before January 15. — VNS