A violent school attack in Hồ Chí Minh City has left five students injured in Thạnh An commune on Sept. 4—one day before the opening ceremony for the school year.
The Latest: On Sept. 4, a male student born in 2011 attacked and injured five students with a weapon at a school in Thạnh An commune, Hồ Chí Minh City. For the first three days following the attack, state media carried no reporting on the incident itself.
- It was not until the morning of Sept. 7 that Hồ Chí Minh City police officially confirmed the attack occurred in Thạnh An commune, noting that the five injured students had received emergency care and were in stable condition.
The Details: According to police, preliminary findings indicated that the student responsible had previously undergone mental health examinations, received treatment, and been given a mental health diagnosis.
- Authorities also alleged that harmful content from a group on a foreign social media platform had influenced his thinking and led to the attack.
In the days immediately following the incident, surveillance footage showing a student wielding a weapon and injuring others circulated on social media.
- Accompanying posts falsely claimed that the event happened at a high school in Bà Rịa ward, Hồ Chí Minh City.
Conflicting Information: On Sept. 6, the Bà Rịa ward police Facebook page posted a notice headlined “WARNING: FALSE INFORMATION,” declaring that claims stating the incident occurred in Bà Rịa ward were entirely false.
- The notice urged residents not to post, circulate, or comment on unverified information or videos, warning that anyone providing or sharing fabricated or unverified information online would face strict penalties under the law.
- Several state news outlets republished the notice that day.
A day later on Sept. 7, Hồ Chí Minh City police confirmed on the Government Information page that the attack had happened in Thạnh An commune, rather than Bà Rịa ward as initially claimed online.
- According to Radio Free Asia (RFA), the Sept. 6 post subsequently disappeared from the department’s Facebook page, and no post explained its removal.
Why It Matters: On Aug. 19, the government issued Decree 330/2026, proposed by the Ministry of Public Security, which established administrative penalties for cybersecurity and personal data protection violations; it took effect the same day.
- Under Article 11, Clause 2, Point a, individuals who provide or share false or unverified information face fines of 10 million to 20 million đồng.
- Furthermore, under Article 71, Clause 2, Point b, individuals who extract, share, or publicly disclose audio or video data without authorization face fines of 15 million to 25 million đồng. The sole exception is providing the data in response to a written request from a competent authority.
- As a result, individuals who extracted and posted the video could face penalties under two separate provisions of the same decree.
Despite these clear legal parameters, it remains unclear why authorities waited until Sept. 7—three days after the Sept. 4 attack—to issue an official statement about the incident.
- The official reason why Bà Rịa ward police removed their Sept. 6 notice also remains unknown.
Thành Phương wrote this news article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on September 7, 2026. The Vietnamese Magazine translated it into English.
