A woman and her two nephews in northern Hai Phong City were severely burned after 40 balloons suddenly exploded as they were about to bring them to a school to sell to students on the first day of the new academic year.

The accident occurred at 6 am yesterday morning, September 5, when Vuong Hong Tham, 43 and her nephews Le Dai Duong, 27 and Vuong Hong Ha, 31, were arranging the balloons before bringing them to a nearby school to sell.   All of the balloons, which had been filled with hydrogen, were tied, but were let go to the ceiling of a 14 square-meter room in their house, in Thuong Ly Ward, Hong Bang District, Tham said.

As the three were dividing the balloons into groups based on their size, one of them contacted a light bulb on the ceiling, and the heat from the bulb made the balloon exploded, causing all of the other balloons to blow up, too.

The intense explosion seriously burned all three of the people and blew off the sheet-metal roof of the house.

The victims were taken to the Hai Phong Viet-Tiep Hospital for emergency treatment. Dung and Ha, due to their dangerous condition, with burns over 50 percent of their bodies, were later transferred to the National Burn Institute in Hanoi for further treatment.