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HO CHI MINH CITY, Friday (AFP) Two welders have been arrested for accidentally starting the deadly office blaze in Vietnam which left at least 61 people dead, officials said Friday.

Nguyen Phu Tin and Pham Viet Thanh were arrested Thursday and have been accused of sparking the inferno which tore through the seven-storey Saigon International Business Centre on Tuesday.

The two men had been working at a discotheque on the second floor, when sparks from their equipment set off the blaze, foreign ministry official Nguyen Van Niem told AFP.

Both men are the subject of a police investigation for "breach of fire safety regulations under article 240 of the Vietnam Penal Code", the official added.

The police were uncertain whether a third man working with the two arrested men was still at large or had perished in the fire, according to Niem.

"We have officially concluded that the fire was accidentally started by the welders," he said.

Investigators probing the blaze had already ruled out sabotage or terrorism as a possible cause. Other reports had suggested gas from the air conditioning system could have triggered the disaster.

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