At Least 10 Dead in Blaze on Thai Border

At least 10 people have been killed in a fire that swept through a Cambodian hotel-casino on the border with Thailand, police and local media say.

Hundreds of people were in the Grand Diamond City building in the border town of Poipet when the fire broke out after 23:30 (16:30 GMT) on Wednesday.

Video circulating on social media showed people apparently jumping or falling from upper floors.

Local reports said the number of deaths was likely to rise.

The hotel-casino employs 400 workers and many Thai nationals were visiting at the time.

“Many of the victims are thought to have been trapped on upper floors and a Thai volunteer organisation, Ruamkatanyu Foundation,” said it was unlikely that they could have survived.

Rescue teams struggled to reach people inside the building because of the dense smoke.

Poipet is a key crossing point between the two countries. It is also popular for its casinos, which “many Thai nationals visit because gambling is mostly illegal in Thailand.”

The building backs on to the Thai border and many of the injured were sent across the border for treatment. Some were sent to a hospital in the nearby town of Aranyaprathet.

Authorities are still working to determine the cause of the fire.

BBC /Shakirat Sadiq