Phnom Penh, Dec. 29 (AP) A massive fire at a casino hotel in Cambodia that lasted more than 12 hours killed at least 19 people and injured more than 60, with no other casualties apparently reported Thursday.
Neighboring Thailand sent fire trucks and emergency workers to help deal with the crisis in the bustling border town of Poipet.
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Some victims were believed to still be under rubble or in locked rooms that rescue teams could not immediately access, so the death toll was expected to rise, said Sek Sokhom, head of the Department of ‘information from the province of Banteay Meanchey. He said more than 60 people were injured.
The dead and injured were people of various nationalities, including Thai, Chinese, Malaysian, Vietnamese and Cambodian, he said. A local Buddhist temple was used to receive their bodies.
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Videos posted on social media showed people falling from a roof after being caught in the fire at the Grand Diamond City casino and hotel in the town of Poipet. Many of those inside, both customers and staff, were from neighboring Thailand.
In a video released by Cambodia’s fire agency, onlookers could be heard shouting pleas to rescue people trapped on the roof of the hotel complex, which is more than a dozen stories high at its highest point. The video showed at least one man falling as flames reached the roof.
“Oh, please help rescue them. Pump water, pump water!” shouted onlookers.
The Department of Fire Prevention, Extinguishing and Rescue posted that calls for help were heard from the 13th, 14th and 15th floors at 4 a.m. and hands were seen waving from the windows, as well as the flashlight of a mobile phone signaling from inside the complex.
“The fire was massive and it was inside the casino, so it was difficult for our water cannons to get to it,” a firefighter observed in the video posted online by the fire department. He said that was the reason why the fire continued to burn for so long.
The fire, which started around midnight on Wednesday, was finally put out at 2pm on Thursday, Sek Sokhom said, adding that the rescue operation was continuing.
He also said an initial investigation found the fire may have been caused by an overload due to New Year’s decorations raising electricity, causing wires to heat up and burn.
Banteay Meanchey police chief Sithi Loh said earlier that 360 emergency personnel and 11 fire trucks had been sent to the scene of the fire, the cause of which was not yet known.
“Right now, we are trying to get the dead bodies out of the building. I don’t think there are any survivors because of the very thick smoke. Even all of us (rescue personnel) have to wear the right gear when we go into the building, otherwise we won’t be able to breathe at all,” Montri Khaosa-ard, a staff member at the Thailand Ruamkatanyu Foundation, a social welfare organization that sends volunteers to the disaster. scenes, he said Thursday afternoon.
Rescue teams from Thailand and Cambodia worked side by side in Thursday’s search of the badly burned premises.
Thailand’s public broadcaster Thai PBS reported that 50 Thais, both staff and customers, were trapped inside the casino complex. He reported that Cambodian authorities requested help to fight the fire from Thailand, which sent five fire trucks and 10 rescue vans.
Poipet in western Cambodia is opposite the city of Aranyaprathet in more affluent Thailand, and there is a lot of cross-border trade and tourism.
Thai PBS cited reports that the emergency room at Aranyaprathet Hospital was full and that other victims had to be sent to other hospitals.
Casinos are illegal in Thailand, but neighboring countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos host the lucrative industry. Cambodia has a particularly active casino industry because the Southeast Asian country is also a popular tourist destination with convenient international connections.
A report received from Soth Kimkolmony, a spokesman for Cambodia’s National Disaster Management Committee, said the Grand Diamond City casino complex has 500 employees and had 1,000 customers on Wednesday. It was unclear how many were present when the fire broke out.
The casino is just a few meters (yards) from the border checkpoint with Thailand and is popular with customers who make the four-hour drive from the Thai capital, Bangkok. (AP)
(This is an unedited, auto-generated story from the syndicated news feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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