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PHNOM PENH, Dec. 29 (AP) — A fire at a hotel-casino in Cambodia lasted more than 12 hours, killing at least 19 people and injuring more than 60, while other victims apparently remained unaccounted for Thursday.
Neighboring Thailand sent firetrucks and emergency workers to help tackle the crisis in the bustling border town of Poipet.
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Sek Sokhom, head of the Banteay Meanchey provincial information department, said some victims were believed to be still under the rubble or in locked rooms that rescue teams could not immediately access, so the death toll was expected to rise. More than 60 people were injured, he said.
He said the dead and injured came from various countries including Thailand, China, Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia. A local Buddhist temple was used to receive their remains.
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Videos posted on social media showed people falling from the roof of the Grand Diamond City casino and hotel in Poipet town after being trapped in flames. Many of those inside, including customers and staff, were from neighboring Thailand.
In a video released by the Cambodian fire agency, onlookers can be heard shouting for help for people trapped on the roof of the hotel building, which is a dozen stories high at its highest point. Video showed at least one man collapsed as flames spread across the roof.
“Oh, please help rescue them. Pump, pump!” shouted the crowd.
The Department of Fire, Fire Extinguishment and Rescue posted that distress calls were heard from the 13th, 14th and 15th floors at 4 a.m., people were seen waving from the windows, and signals from mobile phone flashlights were heard inside the building.
“The fire was huge and it was inside the casino, our water cannons were hard to reach,” one firefighter said in a video posted online by the fire department. He said this is why the fire has continued to burn for so long.
The fire started around midnight on Wednesday and was finally extinguished at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Sek Sokhom said, adding that rescue operations were continuing.
He also said that preliminary investigations found that the cause of the fire may be the increase in electricity consumption for Chinese New Year decorations, which caused the wires to overheat and burnt.
Banteay Meanchey police chief Sithi Loh earlier said 360 emergency personnel and 11 firetrucks had been dispatched to the scene of the fire, whose cause was not yet known.
“Right now, we are trying to get the bodies out of the building. I don’t think there will be any survivors because the smoke is so thick. Even all of us (rescuers) have to wear proper gear when entering the building, otherwise we Couldn’t breathe at all,” Montri Khaosa-ard, a worker at Thailand’s Ruamkatanyu Foundation, a social welfare organization that sends volunteers to the disaster scene, said Thursday afternoon.
Thai and Cambodian rescue teams worked side by side to search the badly burned home on Thursday.
Thai public television network Thai PBS reported that 50 Thais, including staff and customers, were trapped inside the casino complex. Cambodian authorities asked Thailand for help in dealing with the fire, and Thailand sent five fire trucks and 10 rescue vehicles, the report said.
Poipet, in western Cambodia, is opposite the wealthier Thai city of Aram, and has a busy cross-border trade and tourism industry.
Thailand’s public broadcaster cited reports that the emergency ward at Aranyaprathet Hospital was full and other victims had to be taken to other hospitals.
Casinos are illegal in Thailand, but neighboring countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos have lucrative industries. Cambodia’s casino industry is particularly active, as the Southeast Asian country is also a popular tourist destination with good international connections.
The Grand Diamond City casino complex, which has 500 employees, had 1,000 patrons on Wednesday, according to a report received by Soth Kimkolmony, spokesman for the National Disaster Management Committee of Cambodia. It is unclear how many people were present when the fire broke out.
Located just meters (yards) from the Thai border checkpoint, the casino is popular with patrons who drive four hours from the Thai capital, Bangkok. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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