In the aftermath of a mortar shell explosion on December 2 in the Mekong Delta Province of Vinh Long that killed four children, one more child has been placed in critical condition. A 12 year-old boy suffered injuries to his rib cage and lungs that have become more serious.

Nguyen Minh Truong was sent to the Children’s Hospital No.1 in Ho Chi Minh City from Can Tho Hospital with symptoms including serious respiratory difficulty and a rapid pulse. Initial treatment focused on Truong’s pleura, said Nguyen Quang Tien, chief of the surgical ward at the Can Tho Hospital.

As of yesterday afternoon, local police had not confirmed why the mortar shell, located near a house owned by Nguyen Van Lot, 49, in Hieu Nghia Commune of Vung Liem District, exploded. The accident occurred while Lot was hosting a party on the anniversary of the death of one of his relatives, and many guests and relatives had brought their children.

Senior lieutenant colonel Phan Ngoc Tinh, cabinet chief of the Vinh Long Police Department, said, “Mr. Lot said he dredged a canal, picked up the mortar shell, and left it in the bamboo bush near his house over ten years ago.

“So, it is possible that it triggered after people interacted with it.

“The difficulty in the investigation is that the four children playing around it all died.”

Meanwhile Truong, the seriously injured boy, recalled that one of the boys in the group saw the shell and asked the others to help him throw it away.

When they were carrying the shell, it exploded.

Around 800,000 tons of unexploded ordnance (UXO) remains in Vietnam from the time of the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975. Between the end of the war and 2000, UXO killed more than 40,000 people and injured 60,000 more.