Following the breakdown of negotiations between the French and Viet Minh in August 1946, amid ongoing tensions between French and Viet Minh forces in Tonkin, a French patrol boat seized a Chinese junk carrying gasoline on 20 November. The Viet Minh then seized the French boat arresting its crew, and rioting broke out in Haiphong, resulting in the deaths of 240 Vietnamese and 7 French. On 22 November, Valluy ordered the local commander, Colonel Pierre-Louis Debès, to take complete control of Haiphong "and force the Vietnamese government and army into submission.