One among an elderly couple died of suffocation while the other fell unconscious while they were burning coal to keep warm in their house in Thanh Hoa Province, north-central Vietnam earlier this week.

Authorities in Quang Xuong District, where the incident occurred, said on Friday that 58-year-old L.V.T. and his 59-year-old wife, Ph.T.D., burned coal to warm their bedroom on Tuesday night.

Smoke filled the room as the door and the window were shut while they were asleep.

As a result, T. was found dead on the next morning while D. fell into a deep coma before being taken to the hospital, where her condition was said to be critical.

Quang Xuong District authorities determined that the two victims were asphyxiated by carbon dioxide gas from burning coal.

The district officials gave the victims’ family a total financial support of VND15 million (US$661).

Earlier, another similar suffocation case happened in the same district.

Tr.T.Ch., 66, her 40-year-old daughter, D.T.L., and two grandsons, 12-year-old D.D.A. and nine-year-old D.V.T., were sleeping in a closed room where a coal heater was burning on the night of February 3.

Their other family members found Ch. and T. already dead on the next morning while L. and A. fell unconscious.

After hospitalization, the latter two have regained stable health.

Asphyxiation from coal fumes was also confirmed as the cause of Ch. and T.’s deaths.

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