Vietnam police detain man over damage to ancient throne
HANOI: Vietnamese police have detained a man who broke into a history exhibit and damaged an antique throne considered to be one of the nation's most precious artefacts, conservation officials said on Sunday (May 25).
The ornate red-and-gold Nguyen dynasty throne was the royal seat of the last feudal family to rule Vietnam between 1802 and 1945 and has been preserved for posterity in Hue city's Thai Hoa Palace.
A 42-year-old man "snuck into the Nguyen dynasty display area, screamed and then broke the front left armrest" around midday on Saturday, a statement from the Hue Monuments Conservation Centre (HMCC) said.
In footage circulating on social media and Vietnam news sites purporting to show the incident, the man can be seen sitting cross-legged on the two-century-old throne that is adorned with dragon motifs.
He was quickly arrested but showed "signs of psychosis, screaming, talking nonsense and could not answer the investigator's questions", the HMCC said.
Police detained him to conduct a psychiatric assessment, it said, while the throne will be removed for repair and preservation efforts.
"This is an extremely rare incident," the HMCC statement said.
Vietnam's ministry of culture, sports and tourism has asked for an urgent report on the incident.
The central city of Hue was established as the capital of unified Vietnam under the Nguyen dynasty.
It was recognised as a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1993 and hosts several ancient palaces, tombs and artefacts. - AFP
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
32 minutes ago
- The Star
Nearly two years' jail, caning for Singaporean man caught with at least 100 sexually explicit videos of children
Tan Wei Ting, 31, had pleaded guilty to one count of being in possession of child sexual abuse material. - Photo: ST file SINGAPORE: A man used a file-sharing platform to download sexually explicit videos involving children, and he did so up to twice a week. Although he would delete the content after viewing it, authorities later found at least 100 clips of such material in his possession. The prosecution said that the youngsters in the videos appeared to be under 16 years old and one of them was a victim of 'torture, cruelty or physical abuse'. Tan Wei Ting, 31, was sentenced to a year and 11 months' jail, and three strokes of the cane on Wednesday (Aug 20). The Singaporean had pleaded guilty to one count of being in possession of child sexual abuse material. Deputy Public Prosecutor Jotham Tay told the court that in either 2020 and 2021, Tan went online and found out how to obtain such content by using a certain peer-to-peer file-sharing programme. He then installed it on his computer and went on to download child pornography. The DPP said: 'The accused used (the program to download such content) about once or twice a week, queueing many pieces of such material onto the... software which would take time to complete its downloads. 'He watched (them) about once every two weeks, and would delete the material that he had watched.' Court documents did not reveal how his offence came to light. But on Feb 22, 2023, police raided his home and seized devices including the computer's central processing unit, which was found to contain the incriminating videos. Officers arrested Tan, and he was charged in court in 2025. His bail was set at S$15,000 on Aug 20, and he is expected to begin serving his sentence on Aug 25. - The Straits Times/ANN
New Straits Times
5 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Vietnamese man faces five charges after Butterworth supermarket hostage drama
BUTTERWORTH: A Vietnamese man who allegedly tried to snatch an 11-month-old baby while fleeing after being caught stealing from a supermarket in Telaga Air last week, was brought before the magistrate's court here today to face five charges. However, proceedings against Nguyen Minh Hoa, 36, have been postponed to Sept 9 to allow for the presence of a Vietnamese interpreter. Magistrate Aini Adilah Muhammad Faizal also ruled that the accused will not be granted bail. It is understood that Nguyen faces three charges under Section 324 of the Penal Code for voluntarily causing hurt with a weapon or dangerous means, two charges under Section 380 of the Penal Code for theft, and one charge under Section 15(1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63 for overstaying his visa. Deputy public prosecutor Siti Marissa Safina Saiful Adli appeared for the prosecution, while the accused was unrepresented. After the hearing, Nguyen was escorted out of the courtroom in a wheelchair, reportedly due to a gout condition. It was earlier reported that police had detained a man after behaving aggressively and fled from a supermarket on Jalan Telaga Air with stolen seafood. During the incident, which occurred around 12.45pm, the suspect grabbed an 11-month-old baby, who was in his mother's arms, while holding a knife, causing bruises on the child's back. A supermarket supervisor had caught the man trying to leave with some weighed seafood without paying. As the supervisor intervened, the suspect broke free and grabbed the baby while brandishing a knife. Staff and shoppers quickly overpowered and handed him over to the police when they arrived at the scene.
The Star
4 days ago
- The Star
Singapore evaluating rapid urine test kits to enable faster detection of etomidate, found in Kpods
Vaping devices were seized during a raid targeting suspected vape distribution at a residence in Yishun on June 23. -- ST PHOTO: AZMI ATHNI SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): Rapid urine test kits could soon be used by the authorities to detect etomidate, an illicit substance increasingly found in vapes here. This marks another step in a recent clampdown against such vapes, known as Kpods, which have grown in appeal partly because some sellers claim the drug cannot be detected in urine. A Health Sciences Authority (HSA) spokeswoman said on Aug 7 that such claims are false. She added HSA was evaluating rapid urine test kits that could enable faster detection of etomidate use. Ways to test for etomidate in hair and using saliva are also in the works. Currently, vape pods, including those suspected to contain illicit substances such as etomidate, are tested at HSA's laboratories. They also conduct confirmation tests for etomidate in both blood and urine samples from patients admitted to hospitals. The spokeswoman added: 'Our laboratory findings confirm that even trace amounts can be detected in the urine of those who are vaping etomidate.' Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung said on July 20 the authorities were working to list etomidate as an illegal drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act. This came after a third of more than 100 vapes seized during enforcement operations and tested at random contained the substance. The legal update paves the way for abusers and traffickers of Kpods to face stricter punishment, such as mandatory rehabilitation and jail time for repeat offenders. Growing demand Law enforcement agencies in other countries are also finding ways to test for the illicit substance as they grapple with a growing trend of etomidate abuse. The substance, once called 'space oil' in Hong Kong, has now been banned and renamed, and police there have been carrying rapid testing devices since January. The Hong Kong Free Press reported that the device can be inserted into a vape and detects the drug within 15 seconds with a 99 per cent accuracy rate. The substance emerged in the city in late 2023 and is now a scourge, with 327 etomidate abusers recorded in the first half of 2025, exceeding the 300 for the whole of 2024. Two manufacturers of etomidate rapid test kits told ST there is a growing global demand for their products. Chinese firm Hangzhou Clongene Biotech began developing urine and saliva rapid test kits two years ago in response to higher demand in China and abroad. A sales manager, who wanted to be known only as Ms Blanche, said it mainly supplies these kits to the government, hospitals and police. She told ST on Aug 12: 'We received inquiries from some biopharmaceutical companies from Singapore in the past two weeks, and we are preparing samples for them to test now.' Mr Kutong, a technical support and market manager for Ecalbio, a Chinese company which started manufacturing such kits in 2018, said it sold 400,000 test kits in 2024, up from 300,000 in 2023 and 100,000 in 2022. He added that customers have come from the US, Canada and Russia, but not Singapore. Results in minutes The etomidate kits produced by these two companies resemble Covid-19 test kits. Urine and saliva samples can be tested on them, and results are displayed within five to 10 minutes. If etomidate is present, only the control line will become visible. A negative result is indicated by both the control and test lines becoming visible. In June, a published paper in scientific journal Dalton Transactions presented a new chromium(III) complex-based sensor which could test for etomidate. The sensor works by displaying a colour change if etomidate is present within vape liquids, and can provide accurate results within a minute, according to the research paper. The team of researchers from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Hong Kong Baptist University said vaping etomidate is a red-hot social issue that has led to health concerns and deaths. The researchers wrote: 'A fast, sensitive and cost-effective detection tool for etomidate is urgently needed to support law enforcement.' - The Straits Times/ANN
