In Cambodia, the toll of the fire at a hotel casino in Poipet is very heavy. “About” ten people were killed overnight from Wednesday to Thursday in this tragedy in this town on the border with Thailand, according to Cambodian police.
The fire, which broke out around 11:30 p.m. at the Grand Diamond City Hotel and Casino, left “about ten dead and thirty injured”, according to a preliminary police report. Images posted on social networks showed the imposing complex ravaged by flames.
The presence of carpet fanned the fire
The injured have been sent to hospitals in the neighboring Thai province of Sa Kaeo, a source told the Thai Foreign Ministry. “The authorities tried to control the fire, in particular with the help of fire engines from Thailand”, according to this source. A member of a Thai rescue team also said that the fire quickly spread in the casino hotel, several stories high, due to the presence of carpet.
Some 400 people work at Grand Diamond City, Cambodian police said. Foreign citizens were inside the building when the fire broke out, according to local media.
Recent deadly fires in the region
Many casinos have swarmed in Poipet, where Thai customers flock to play legally, casinos being prohibited in Thailand. In recent months, several deadly fires in night establishments, regularly suspected of not respecting basic safety rules, have broken out in Southeast Asia. In August, a fire at a nightclub near Pattaya, Thailand, killed 26 people, mostly young locals who came to party.