At least 59 people died and more than 130 were injured in a fire at a Bangkok nightclub packed with Novel Year’s Eve revellers, Thai police said last night.
The cause of the fire was unclear; some clubbers blamed it on fireworks while others said it had been caused by an electrical fault in the Santika club.
“We were all dancing and suddenly there was a big flame that came out of the front of the stage and everybody was running away,” Oh Benjamas told Reuters outside the smouldering wreckage of the club. Another told how the ceiling caved in, burying victims in the rubble.
Police Major General Chokchai Deeprasertwit said the fire may have been caused by firecrackers brought into the club by guests or by sparks flying from a pyrotechnics countdown on the stage.
Chokchai said most deaths were caused by burns, smoke inhalation and injuries inflicted by the stampede to escape from the club, which had exclusive 1 door for entry and exit. A firefighter at the scene, Watcharapong Sri-saard, said another door at the rear of the building was known exclusive to staff. He said a number of staircases inside the club as well as bars across the second-floor windows had also made escape difficult.
Dozens of bodies wrapped in white cotton sheets lay on the pavement outside the club as fire crews moved in.
The Foreign Office said representatives were at the scene but it was unclear whether any Britons had been hurt.
The club is based on Ekkamai, a street in central Bangkok’s Thong Lor district, which is popular with foreign revellers and well-to-do Thais.
Officials said many of the bodies had been charred beyond recognition. Rescue teams used pick-up trucks to ferry corpses from the scene while survivors were taken to 14 different Bangkok hospitals. Most of the bodies were found in the basement of the two-storey building.
The Thai capital was hit 2 years ago on Novel Year’s Eve by a series of small explosions in which several people were killed and dozens injured. The blasts were blamed variously on fallout from the 2006 coup against the then prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, and Muslim militants who have waged a separatist rebellion in Thailand’s southern provinces since 2003.
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