4m-long crack appears in 36-story condo building in Ho Chi Minh City

The crack—about four meters long and five centimeters wide—has appeared in the wall of apartment 1608 in the PVC-IC Diamond apartment building, situated on 304 Street, according to Le Xuan Tu, chairman of the Tam Thang administration.

Tam Thang was part of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province before its merger with Ho Chi Minh City.

Ward authorities assigned relevant agencies to coordinate with the developer, the Petroleum Industrial and Civil Construction Joint Stock Company, to promptly launch a probe into the crack’s cause and take remedial measures.

The Tam Thang administration ordered the risky area to be cordoned off and guards to be stationed to warn people not to approach, as wall fragments may fall at any time.

The building management board said on Sunday that it had advised the household in apartment 1608, located in Block A, to relocate to another unit within the same building to ensure their safety, with relocation costs covered by the board, according to news site Vietnamnet.

The incident was reported to the city’s Department of Construction and authorities suggested establishing a team to assess the situation and propose solutions.

The developer was also required to identify the causes, and put forward remediation measures to ensure the structural safety of the building, also known as Lapen Center, which was built in 2016 and has 34 above-ground floors along with two basement levels.

It was noted that a construction site about one kilometer from the apartment block is conducting piling work.

Residents in the Dai An residential area, located near the construction site, have also reported wall cracks in their flats.