Police in southern Kien Giang Province are hunting for a man who yesterday robbed and assaulted a woman and her two sons at their home, leaving one boy dead and the other severely injured. All of the victims were taken to a hospital, but 9-year-old Nguyen Chi Cuong died on the way. 32-year-old Nguyen Thi Phi, Cuong’s mother, and 6-year-old Nguyen Tri Dat, Cuong’s younger brother, are being treated at Phu Quoc General Hospital in Phu Quoc Island District. Cuong died from a brain injury caused by a wound to his left temple, while the woman suffered many wounds to her head, and Dat was in a coma when they were hospitalized yesterday morning, said Dr. Nguyen Thanh Binh, acting head of the Emergency Department of the hospital. According to the case file, the robbery and murder case occurred early Tuesday morning in Phi’s house in Ganh Dau Commune. Her husband, Nguyen Tri Dung, was not at home as he was fishing at sea. Upon finding the strange man in her house, Phi and her sons shouted for help, but they were not heard by their neighbors since it was raining heavily outside at that time, she recounted. The man then used a knife to attack the victims, leaving all of them unconscious. It was not until 6 am that Phi recovered and called her relatives living nearby for help. Police were called to the scene and took the victims to the hospital. Initial investigations showed that the robber had taken away one gold necklace, two gold rings, 13 bracelets, and other jewelry items, worth about US$8,500 in total. Provincial police are joining the district police in investigating the serious theft. A home robbery also occurred in Ho chi Minh City on September 18. Two young men stopped their motorbike at a house on Nguyen Thai Binh Street, Tan Binh District, and one of them rushed into the house and snatched a laptop from a resisting girl, a daughter of the house’s owner, Tran Thanh Nga.

The girl shouted for help and her relatives ran after the men, who were speeding away, but then collided with two other motorbikes, causing them to fall down on the ground. Yet both of the robbers got up and ran away, leaving their vehicle behind.