Director and 5 employees suffocated in a tank of fish fat

Seeing that his colleague had not come out for a long time after taking a fish fat sample in the tank, 5 more people went in to check and all passed out. When the tank was smashed, 6 victims were brought out and all had died, including the factory director and deputy director.

The tank containing catfish fat where the victims died. Photo: Gia Bao

At around 9am on September 4, an employee of the testing department of the fishmeal and fish oil factory of IDI Multinational Investment and Development Joint Stock Company (Binh Thanh Commune, Lap Vo District, Dong Thap Province) went into the tank to take a sample of catfish fat for testing. Seeing that his colleague was taking a long time to come out, another employee suspected that he was suffocating so he went in to check.

Waiting for a long time without seeing any movement, the factory director, deputy director and two other people who were operation department staff also went to rescue. However, all of them suffocated and were believed to have fallen into the fish oil tank.

Upon discovering the incident, factory workers broke the tank to bring the victims out. However, all of them had died. While breaking the tank, Dang Van An (28 years old, living in Nam Dinh) was seriously injured and was taken to Lap Vo District General Hospital for emergency treatment.

The deceased victims included Mai Huu Ton (31 years old, engineer - factory director); Trieu Ba Tra (39 years old - deputy director); Lam Thanh Phong (35 years old); Tran Tan Loi (27 years old); Le Dinh Thai (27 years old); Le Xuan Thuan (20 years old).

Workers at IDI company were bewildered by the accident that killed 6 people due to suffocation. Photo: Gia Bao.

Colonel Nguyen Thanh Long - Head of Lap Vo District Police - said that initial information showed that the 6 victims died from suffocation from tra fish oil. As of 3:30 p.m. the same day, the authorities were still urgently carrying out the work of examining the scene and performing autopsies.

After the accident, the Lap Vo District Party Committee (Dong Thap) directed the Fatherland Front and district organizations to coordinate in mobilizing funds to support each victim's family with 3 million VND. IDI Company promised to support 100 million VND per victim for the funeral.

According to VnExpress - TH