Police in Hanoi have proposed that the city authorities suspend operations of The Garden building after dozens of people passed out at a supermarket located in its basement to serve an investigation into the incident, which has initially been blamed on exhaust gas. Colonel Tran Quang Trong, chief of police of Hanoi’s Nam Tu Liem District, on Sunday said the local police had proposed that the city government temporarily stop shut down The Garden building to serve the ongoing probe into the case in which more than 20 people fainted at the Big C supermarket in the basement, Nguoi Lao Dong (Laborer) newspaper said the same day. The incident took place at about 7:00 pm on Saturday when people were shopping and attending a cultural event at the supermarket. Most of the victims were supermarket employees, while the rest were shoppers. After receiving a report about the incident, district police officers, including firefighting police, were deployed to the scene to handle the case and take the victims to the 19-8 Hospital under the Ministry of Public Security for emergency treatment. The victims were hospitalized about 7:45 pm, and after examinations doctors concluded that they had suffered from exhaust gas poisoning, said Dr. Do Tri Hieu, head of the hospital’s emergency shift on Saturday night. After about four hours of intensive treatment, most of the victims recovered and were discharged, and the last of them left the hospital early Sunday morning, Dr. Hieu said.
According to a representative of Big C, the supermarket’s air-conditioning system was out of order, which might have led to a shortage of oxygen and then to the exhaust gas poisoning. Police have blocked Zone B1 of the basement, where the victims fainted, for investigation. On Sunday afternoon, the Hanoi Department of Health and the People’s Committee of Nam Tu Liem District held a meeting to discuss the possible causes of the incident. According to initial conclusions at the meeting, a large volume of CO2 from the parking lot had entered the Big C area in the basement, leading to the poisoning. This large volume of CO2 had been discharged from the motorbikes of more than 1,000 people who had left the parking lot after attending an exchange session with South Korean film artists at the building. Police are stepping up their probe into the case, said Major General Nguyen Duc Chung, director of the Hanoi Police Department.
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