A 44-year-old man in southern Vietnam poured gasoline around his house, with his wife and two children locked inside in an apparent attempt to “burn the whole family,” following a quarrel with the woman on Friday night.

The wife was rescued at 10:30 pm the same day, two hours after the man started to lock them up in their house, according to the police.

The children, a 13-year-old girl and her year-old sister, were also brought to safety at first light on Saturday, after the man left the scene without actually set the house on fire.

The incident took place in Ben Cat Town of Binh Duong Province.

The married couple had allegedly had a fight that night, before the man, known only as M., threatened his wife and children at knifepoint to stay inside while he locked the doors and started to pour gasoline over the house.

The house of the family in the incident is seen in this photo. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Upon receiving report from local residents, police in Ben Cat dispatched three fire trucks and more than ten law enforcement officers to the scene, where they encouraged the husband, who also locked him inside the house with his family, to release his wife and children.

However, the law enforcement officers had to break down the door to get into the house as M. did not go out.

Officers managed to rescue the wife, while the two young children were still controlled by the father in the bedroom.

To avoid mishaps, the law enforcement officers did not continue to break into the bedroom but stayed outside.

M. eventually let go of the two young children and took advantage of the tiredness of police officers and darkness to flee the house at the dawn on Saturday. Fortunately, none of the mother and daughters was injured.

During initial investigation, the 49-year-old wife said that she told M. to sign in a divorce form at around 8:00 pm on Friday as the husband has no stable occupation and gives little support to the family.

The woman did not expect that the action would lose M.’s temper and led him to threaten her “if [the wife] divorces him, he will burn the whole family.”

Firefighters are on the attempt to rescue the two young children at 00:00 am on November 17, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre

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