Vietnam fire 'started by bad welding'

More than 100 people were injured in the blaze

Vietnamese police believe welders may have triggered the fire that ravaged an office complex in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday.

The blaze engulfed the six-storey Saigon International Business Centre and left at least 61 people dead.

I can't find my younger sister anywhere

Truong Thi Yen

Officials in the city played down earlier reports in state media that the death toll could be as high as 100.

Foreign ministry officials said police were investigating whether builders working in the Blue disco on the building's third floor had started the fire by mistake.

Police are also looking into the possibility of a gas leak.

Rescue workers are still hunting through the burned-out building for bodies.

Many of the corpses already recovered are too badly burned to be identified.

Family members of the missing waited desperately for news.

"I can't find my younger sister anywhere," Truong Thi Yen told French news agency AFP.

"The people there are unrecognisable and I have been to every hospital in Saigon," she said, referring to the city's former name.

The fire burned for about five hours before it was put out on Tuesday evening.

It is not clear how many people had been in the building.

The BBC's Clare Arthurs in Vietnam said the complex had only one fire escape and it took firefighters more than three hours to get suitable ladders to the scene.

The fire raged for five hours

At least three foreigners - two Britons and one American - are among the dead.

US giant American International Assurance Company (AIA) is based on the second floor of the building.

At least 22 people, including eight of its staff and 14 local agents, died in the blaze.

Companies from the UK, Australia, Belgium, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand also have offices there.

Fire is a major problem in Ho Chi Minh City due to overcrowding and poor electrical wiring.