At least 19 dead, 30 missing in Cambodia casino-hotel fire: Police
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Follow topic:
PHNOM PENH - At least 19 people were killed and up to 30 were missing after a huge fire tore through a casino-hotel complex in a Cambodian town on the Thai border, said officials on Thursday.
About 400 employees and patrons were in the Grand Diamond City casino and hotel in the town of Poipet when the fire broke out around midnight.
“The number of deaths may reach more than 20,” said Mr Sek Sokhom, head of the Banteay Meanchey provincial information department. Up to 30 people remained missing and 60 were injured, he added.
He told Cambodian newspaper Kampuchea Thmey that the death toll could even rise to the hundreds.
A provincial police report said more than 360 emergency personnel and 11 fire trucks were deployed to fight the blaze at Grand Diamond City casino-hotel.
Thailand also sent their firefighters to help. “So far, the Cambodian and Thai rescuers are still searching for the remaining victims,” said the report.
The fire reportedly started after a gas tank exploded late on Wednesday evening, although Cambodia’s Fire Prevention and Rescue Police Department said the cause is still under investigation.
A volunteer from Thai rescue group Ruamkatanyu Foundation said the blaze started on the first floor but spread quickly along the carpets, leaping up through the multi-storey building.
Cambodian media said several guests climbed to the rooftop to escape the inferno.
They were expecting the Cambodian authorities to rescue them with cranes, but as the flames approached, they were forced to leap to the ground.
Two of them died when they landed, while others broke their legs.
“I witnessed people running out of the building to escape from the smoke,” said a volunteer from Ruamkatanyu Foundation. “Then we saw some people jumping down.”
Video footage shows the building consumed by flames, with firefighters struggling to contain the blaze and rescuers attempting to pluck people from a burning ledge.
In one video clip, an unidentified man is seen sitting on a window ledge as smoke billows out from behind him. In another clip, a group of people huddle on a ledge as flames draw near.
A Thai Foreign Ministry source said the ministry was coordinating closely with local authorities, with the injured transferred to hospitals in Thailand’s Sa Kaeo province.
More than 50 victims have been hospitalised. Local public health official Prapas Pookduang said 13 people were on life support.
Sa Kaeo Governor Parinya Phothisat said Thai hospitals had treated 79 Thai nationals, 30 Cambodians and eight Indonesians.
Cambodia is one of South-east Asia’s poorest countries. Its citizens are officially barred from gambling in its casinos.
But there are numerous casino-hotels clustered along the Thai border, with Poipet being a popular holiday destination for visitors from Thailand, where most forms of gambling are also illegal.
The owner of Grand Diamond City is reportedly fugitive Thai politician Vatana Asavahame, 86.
About a year ago, Vatana offered to sell Grand Diamond City and another casino for a combined price of 12 billion baht (S$467 million), citing the economic downturn as the reason.
It is not clear whether the sale took place.
A former deputy interior minister, Vatana is wanted by the Thai authorities for malfeasance in connection with irregularities involving the Klong Dan wastewater treatment project in Samut Prakan province, which is located in his former constituency.
A warrant for his arrest was issued in July 2008 after he failed to attend the reading of a Supreme Court verdict on his case.
Vatana reportedly fled to Cambodia.
In July 2018, the court sentenced him in absentia to three years in jail for land-procurement fraud. AFP, REUTERS, XINHUA, THE NATION/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
