26 dead in casino hotel fire

After the fire at a casino hotel in Cambodia on the border with Thailand, the death toll has risen to 26, according to the authorities. Among the 26 dead were 21 people from neighboring Thailand, Sek Sokhom, spokesman for the authorities in Cambodia's Banteay Meanchey province, said on Friday. Some of the dead were found in stairwells.

According to police, the fire broke out late Wednesday evening at the Grand Diamond City Hotel and Casino in the town of Poipet on the border with Thailand. A volunteer from Thailand's Ruamkatanyu Foundation rescue organization said the fire started on the first floor and spread rapidly to other floors through the carpeted floor.

The building complex burned down completely. On Thursday evening, the authorities had assumed 19 deaths. After the discovery of seven other bodies on Friday, the search was called off. According to the spokesman for the authorities, the rescue workers have reached all parts of the building where victims were suspected.

Videos on media and social networks show people trying to escape the flames on window sills, some even jumping off the ground. "Two people died instantly when they hit the ground," a Thai rescuer told CNN. "Four to five others broke their legs." Others are said to have taken refuge on the roof of the building.

The fire apparently broke out on the first floor and then spread quickly, it said. The flames would have surrounded the hotel and also spread to neighboring buildings. The fire was brought under control after around nine hours. More than 300 firefighters and helicopters were deployed. Rescue workers also rushed to help from the nearby Thai city of Aranyaprathet.

The Cambodian police initially spoke of around ten dead and 30 injured. In the neighboring Thai province of Sa Kaeo, more than 70 victims of the fire were hospitalized, according to the local authorities.

Thai broadcaster PBS reported that the hotel on the border is popular with Thais because gambling is banned in their country. Poipet has around 100,000 inhabitants and is around 350 kilometers from Phnom Penh, the capital of authoritarian Cambodia.

The lax handling of safety requirements in pubs and other places of entertainment in the region repeatedly triggers criticism. This year there have already been two fires that have killed dozens in Cambodia's neighboring countries of Thailand and Vietnam.

In August, a fire at a Thai nightclub killed 26 and injured dozens more. In September, 32 people died in a fire at a karaoke bar in southern Vietnam.