Hanoi cafe fire kills 11; police arrest suspect

Eleven people died in a fire in a cafe in Hanoi on Wednesday night and police have arrested a man suspected of starting the blaze, Vietnam's Ministry of Public Security said, Report informs via Reuters.

The police said in a statement that the man had confessed to using gasoline to light a fire on the ground floor of the three-story cafe after an argument with staff.

The state-run Tien Phong newspaper reported the suspect is aged in his early 50s. The police said the fire was first reported to them just after 11 pm (1600 GMT) on Wednesday.

"The fire blocked all the exits. The smell of gasoline was strong," one witness told the Tien Phong paper, while another reported hearing an explosion. Seven people were rescued from the fire, with two of them hospitalized, the police statement said.