At least 16 people are dead and more than a dozen on life support after a fire ripped through a hotel and casino in Cambodia in the early hours of this morning.
Harrowing photos from the scene showed people desperately huddled on ledges and perched on windowsills in a bid to escape the flames, while videos circulating on social media appeared to show people leaping from windows.
The blaze at the Grand Diamond City hotel-casino in Poipet, on the Thai border, broke out late Wednesday night, Cambodian police said.
A provisional police report seen by AFP put the initial death toll at 10 and the number of injured at 30, but the the province’s deputy governor Ngor Meng Chroun told Cambodia’s Bayon Radio the death toll had reached 16, with about 50 injured.
A fire burning through the Grand Diamond City Casino and Hotel has killed multiple people and injured dozens of others, police said Thursday. Flames were still smouldering at the hotel this morning despite hundreds of emergency workers battling to extinguish the blaze overnight
A major fire at the Grand Diamond City hotel-casino in Poipet has killed at least 10 people
Thailand’s public broadcaster reported dozens of Thais were trapped inside the border hotel, while Thai PBS reported that 50 people, both staff and customers, were trapped inside the casino complex.
Thai authorities in neighbouring Sa Kaeo province later said that more than 50 victims had been hospitalised there.
The blaze that started around midnight Wednesday was still burning Thursday morning.
A volunteer with Thai rescue group the Ruamkatanyu Foundation said the blaze started on the first floor but spread quickly along the carpets, leaping up through the multi-storey building.
‘Right now, we are trying to bring the dead bodies from the building down. I don’t think there will be any survivors because of very thick smoke. Even we all have to wear proper gear when we go inside the building, otherwise we cannot breathe at all,’ said Montri Khaosa-ard, a member of the Ruamkatanyu Foundation.
Maj. Gen. Sithi Loh, a police chief in Banteay Meanchey province, said 360 emergency personnel and 11 firetrucks were sent to the scene to battle the blaze, adding that rescue teams were looking for victims.
Cambodian national police spokesperson Chhay Kim Khoeun confirmed authorities were still working to put out the fire but made no mention of casualties.
Photos and videos appear to show people trying to climb down or jump from the building
The aftermath of the fire at the hotel-casino revealed a completely charred structure
Rescue workers carry an injured person on a stretcher from the site of a fire
Firefighters spray water onto a fire at the Grand Diamond City hotel-casino
A Thai foreign ministry source said they had been coordinating closely with local authorities, ‘including by sending in firetrucks from the Thai side’.
Governor Parinya Phothisat of the Thai Sa Kaeo province said hospitals had treated 79 Thai nationals, 30 Cambodians and eight Indonesians.
Police chief Loh said the cause of the blaze was not yet known.
Poipet in western Cambodia sits opposite the more affluent Thai city of Aranyaprathet, and there is busy cross-border trade and tourism.
Thai PBS cited reports that the Aranyaprathet Hospital’s emergency ward was full and other victims had to be sent to other hospitals.
Cambodia is one of Southeast Asia’s poorest countries and its citizens are officially barred from gambling in its casinos.
There are numerous hotel-casinos clustered along the Thai border, with Poipet a popular holiday destination for visitors from Thailand, where most forms of gambling are also illegal.
A man sits on a window ledge as a fire burns through the Grand Diamond City hotel-casino
Smoke was seen rising from the fire at the Grand Diamond City hotel-casino this morning
Victims of a fire receive water from police officers near a Cambodia-Thai international border gate
The blaze follows two other fatal incidents in entertainment venues in neighbouring Thailand and Vietnam in 2022.
In August, a fire broke out at a Thai nightclub killing 26 people and injuring scores more.
And in September, a blaze broke out in southern Vietnam, killing 32 people in a karaoke bar.
Concerns have long been raised over the region’s lax approach to health and safety regulations, particularly in its countless bars, nightclubs and entertainment venues.
A massive inferno erupted at a New Year’s Eve party at Bangkok’s swanky Santika club in 2009, killing 67 people and injuring more than 200.
The owner of Santika was jailed for three years over the blaze, which began when fireworks were set off as a rock band played on stage.