MALACCA: A 23-year-old Vietnamese factory worker was killed and two others seriously injured during a party at a workers hostel at Tanjung Kling on Wednesday night.

The hostel is home to 710 people, 356 of them Bangladeshis, 331 Vietnamese and 23 Indonesians, who work in a nearby cloth-making factory.

State deputy CID chief Supt R. Gunarajan said the people were segregated according to their nationalities and placed in separate two-storey blocks.

"The Vietnamese were having a party in their block in anticipation of the Chinese New Year when what we believe to be a misunderstanding led to a fight amongst them between 11.30pm and 12.30am.

"We have reason to believe they were also drunk when the fight started because we found many beer cans and alcohol bottles in the rooms," said Supt Gunarajan.

He said during the brawl, which began on the first floor, a man was stabbed several times in the abdomen with a sharp object.

"The victim may have tried to escape, and ran down the stairs, leaving a trail of blood, but succumbed to his injuries and collapsed on the ground floor of the block," he said.

The victim's friends flagged down a taxi and took the victim and two other men injured during the brawl to the Malacca Hospital.

The stab victim was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

The hostel caretaker, who declined to be named, said this was not the first time fights had occurred in the hostel after alcohol-fuelled parties but added they were usually minor.

Police have taken 13 people into custody for questioning and the case would be investigated for murder and rioting.