Three Vietnamese men drown in a vat of fish sauce

One of the major downsides of rampant economic development in Asia has been the proliferation of grim industrial accidents as ambitious proprietors have paid little heed to the safety of their workers.

Of all the gruesome ways to go, I can't think of many worse than drowning in a vat of fermenting fish sauce, a fate that befell three workers in central Vietnam on Saturday, according to Thanh Nien News:

Police in the central province of Khanh Hoa are investigating the deaths of three local workers who choked and drowned in a fish sauce vat on Saturday.

The incident happened when 36-year-old Bui Dinh Tuan, a worker of Cam Ranh Town’s fish sauce-producing Phuc Binh Factory, climbed into a 2.4 meter-high vat used to hold fermenting fish to fix a pipe.

Tuan inhaled some kind of asphyxiating gas and died on the spot, according to the local police.His colleagues Tran Thin and Nguyen Huu Tai, jumped into the vat to rescue him, but they suffocated as well.

Fish sauce, which is made from fish that is fermented with salt for months, is a staple of Vietnamese cuisine.

Source: Tuoi Tre