VietNamNet Bridge - When a fire alarm was activated, thousands of people in the Children’s Hospital in the Mekong Delta City of Can Tho stampeded to the road. The incident happened at about 9pm on May 20.

One hour later, many people still held their babies on their arms, standing on the road even though there was no flame in the hospital.

A man named Vu told VietNamNet that while his baby was sleeping, he walked to the hospital gate for a glass of iced tea. Suddenly hundreds of people jostled to run out of the hospital. "Many people told me to run away. But my wife and my baby were still in the hospital so I ran into the hospital room to take my wife and my kid out," Vu said.

Mrs. Vo Thu Suong, who was holding her baby, said: "My daughter just finished water transfusion, hearing people raised a fire alarm, I instantly held my baby to run out. Everyone was so confoundedly afraid of the stampede."

Similarly, a father named Tuan said: "My wife had just given birth. Hearing many people raised fire alarm, I carried my baby and pulled my wife out. It is lucky! If the fire was real, I do not know what would have happened."

On the morning of May 21, the hospital’s Deputy Director Dr. Tran Van De said the fire alarm came from the General Internal Medicine Ward but actually there was no fire.

"Because of the false fire alarm, more than 1,000 people ran out of the hospital. There were so many people in the hospital at that time so they were in a state of panic. But a moment later, when the firefighting force determined to have no fire, patients and their families was assured again," the doctor said.

Quoc Huy