Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Reuters
Reuters
Environment
By Kwang Jiraporn Kuhakan

Cambodian casino fire kills 19, dozens more feared dead

Smoke rises from part of the Grand Diamond City hotel-casino, as Thai and Cambodian rescuers struggle to extricate dozens of people feared trapped after a fire broke, killing at least 10 and injuring dozens in Poipet near Thailand border, Cambodia, December 29, 2022. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

At least 19 people, many of them Thais, were killed and up to 30 were missing after a fire tore through a casino-hotel complex in a Cambodian town on the Thai border, officials said 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, leaving the building charred and gutted by Thursday afternoon.

Cambodian police officers ride a motorcycle past the Grand Diamond City hotel-casino, as Thai and Cambodian rescuers struggle to extricate dozens of people feared trapped after a fire broke, killing at least 10 and injuring dozens in Poipet near Thailand border, Cambodia, December 29, 2022. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

Cambodian police said hundreds of military, police and volunteer rescue personnel had joined the rescue effort, which was suspended at nightfall given the risk the building might collapse.

Sek Sokhom, head of the Banteay Meanchey provincial information department, said the number of deaths could exceed 20, with 60 people injured. The Cambodian government has set up a committee to investigate the cause of the fire, which remained unclear, he said.

A key part of Cambodia's tourism industry, casinos in the capital of Phnom Penh and on the borders with Vietnam and Thailand are a draw for visitors from Asian nations that ban gambling.

Thai and Cambodian rescuers gather in front of the Grand Diamond hotel-casino as they struggle to extricate dozens of people feared trapped after a fire broke, killing at least 10 and injuring dozens in Poipet near Thailand border, Cambodia, December 29, 2022. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

Those in Poipet are hugely popular with short-term Thai visitors as gambling is illegal across the border and unlicensed casinos operate underground there. Many of the victims were Thai nationals, rescue workers said.

"(The deceased) that we found are Thais, as their IDs show. The bodies now have to be identified," said 53-year-old rescue worker Somboon Kwanoum.

Video footage showed the fire under control by Thursday afternoon and a crew in a fire escape stairwell of the building putting on respirator masks and fire-resistant hoods before entering a smoke-filled corridor.

Thai and Cambodian rescuers gather in front of the Grand Diamond hotel-casino as they struggle to extricate dozens of people feared trapped after a fire broke, killing at least 10 and injuring dozens in Poipet near Thailand border, Cambodia, December 29, 2022. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

Punnawat Promsri, 40, said her Thai relative died trying to help two women escape the fire.

“Max stayed behind to help one woman and a pregnant woman escape," she told Reuters. "I saw from a video clip, I think it was him. He hung on to a rope attached to a fire basket and it broke. He didn't die from fire or smoke.”

Crowds of onlookers had gathered nearby during the day and ambulances rushed to and from the scene as bodies were pulled from the smouldering ruins of the building, according to Reuters witnesses and footage broadcast on local news.

Smoke and fire rise from buildings after a fire incident at the Grand Diamond Casino, in Poipet, Banteay Meanchhey Province, Cambodia, in this still image taken from a social media obtained on December 29, 2022. Facebook/Chaeam Noosung/via REUTERS

Dozens were being treated in hospitals in Sa Kaeo province across the border, where Thai provincial authorities said one Thai national had died in hospital and 70% of those affected showed symptoms of smoke inhalation.

(Additional reporting by Prak Chan Thul in Phnom Penh and Chayut Setboonsarng in Bangkok; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor, Clarence Fernandez, Angus MacSwan and Tomasz Janowski)

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.