A homeless man is being held in custody by police officers in Ho Chi Minh City for allegedly causing a fire that gutted a transaction office of Vietnamese lender Eximbank in Go Vap District on Monday.

At around 2:15 am on Monday, a fire broke out at two buildings on Nguyen Oanh Street in Go Vap District, including the Eximbank transaction office and an adjacent house.

The Go Vap District Police and the Ho Chi Minh City Firefighting Police Division deployed several fire trucks and dozens of firefighters to extinguish the blaze.

The flames were put out later the same day with no casualties reported.

A source confirmed to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that on Tuesday night Go Vap District police officers detained a homeless man, around 28 years of age, on suspicion of causing the fire after investigating the scene and reviewing footage from CCTV cameras.

At the police station, the man admitted to using a lighter to set fire to an electric wire, which caused a short circuit that led to the fire.

Eximbank made a formal announcement on Monday about temporarily suspending the operations of the transaction office, which is under its Tan Dinh Branch.

The office will be shut down indefinitely for rebuilding the damaged facilities, Eximbank said.

Customers are advised to visit the bank’s other transaction offices nearby such as those on Nguyen Thai Son and Ho Van Hue Streets or the Tan Dinh Branch headquarters on Tran Quang Khai Street in District 1.

Established in 1989, Eximbank, or the Vietnam Export Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank, is one of the first joint-stock commercial banks of the country.

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