A man was busy making gunpowder in a hotel room in the north-central Vietnamese province of Nghe An on Friday when police officers stormed in and caught him in the middle of the illegal act.

Nguyen Ba Hung, 26, hailing from the northern province of Thai Binh, has been arrested for attempting to produce the explosive, the Nghe An police department affirmed later the same day.

Some ten officers raided Hung’s room at a hotel in the provincial capital of Vinh at around 3:00 pm, catching the suspect red-handed as he was mixing ingredients to make gunpowder.

Police confiscated two large sacks of sodium benzoate and potassium chlorate, a plastic jar containing iron oxide, all of which weighed a total of 50 kilograms, along with a blender, a knife, and a pair of scissors.

Hung confessed to police later that he had transported the materials from a northern province to the hotel in Vinh to produce gunpowder.

Hung added he was making the explosive for a client from Nghe An, who would pay him VND320,000 (US$14) for every kilogram of gunpowder.

The materials for gunpowder production are at the suspect’s hotel room. Photo: Tuoi Tre

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