The five men were spotted Sunday afternoon cutting overhead cables belonging to the computer and telecom company FPT, local FPT director Truong Ngoc Tuan said.<\/p>\n
Tuan said two FPT repairmen found the men wearing civilian clothes and removing around 80 metres of heavy-duty cable when they went to investigate technical problems in Hanoi’s Van Phuc ward.<\/p>\n
A police officer in Van Phuc confirmed the men had been arrested.<\/p>\n
Tuan said the men stated they worked for the state-owned telecom firm Viettel, and were removing their own company’s cables. A local Viettel manager confirmed the men worked for the company, but denied the company had any plans to remove cable in that area.<\/p>\n
Tuan said in the Van Phuc ward alone, FPT had seen 10 cases of stolen cable since late 2009, with damage amounting to some 200 million dong (11,000 dollars).<\/p>\n
Theft of telecommunications cable has been a problem in Vietnam for several years. In 2007, several fishermen were prosecuted for hauling large quantities of copper and fibre-optic cable off the sea floor and selling it on the black market.<\/p>\n