At least 12 people have been killed and about 100 injured during a large fire that consumed a casino in the Cambodian city of Poipet early Thursday morning, 200 meters from the border with Thailand.
The vast majority of the injured, whose condition is not specified, are treated in hospitals in Thailand, according to the ‘Thai Enquirer’ media.
The Thai Ministry of Health urged the health centers in the province of Sa Kaeo, adjacent to Poipet, to be prepared for the possible arrival of injuries, in a message posted on social networks.
Rescue teams are now looking for possible victims inside the rubble of the building.
According to the Cambodian authorities, the fire started on Wednesday around 11:30 p.m. local time (15:30 GMT) at the casino located in the complex. Diamond City and it took more than nine hours to fully control the flames.
The fire, whose cause is being investigated, it spread rapidly from the casino to the hotel in the complex via a walkway.
The violence with which the flames spread made it difficult to evacuate and extinguish tasks, in which emergency teams and firefighters from neighboring Thailand participated.
trapped in the ceiling
Many of those affected are Thais who worked in the entertainment complex.
In videos published on social networks by witnesses, a group of people trapped on the roof of the building, some of which decide to jump into the void to avoid the flames.
?#BREAKING: People are jumping out of a Hotel due to a massive fire
Watch as disturbing video shows People jumping out of the Grand Diamond City Hotel in Poipet Cambodia as a Massive fire burns uncontrollably with reports of many trapped inside the hotel pic.twitter.com/qzS7WT2e19
— RAWSGL ? BAL (@RawsGlobal) December 29, 2022
According to the images, others affected tried to descend through tied sheets hung from the windows and by emergency stairs.
WATCH: #BNNCambodia reports.
At least 10 people were killed and 30 others injured in a massive fire at the Grand Diamond City casino-hotel in Poipet, Cambodia on the border of Thailand on Thursday. #Cambodia #Fire #accident pic.twitter.com/SFutBUaXjr
— Gurbaksh Singh Chahal (@gchahal) December 29, 2022
The rescue teams had to use helicopters to evacuate dozens of people who had climbed to the roof.
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The police estimate that hundreds of people were in the hotel and casino at the time of the fire.
Poipet, a key city on the route that connects the Cambodian tourist city of Siem Reap and the Thai capital, is famous for the dozen casinos that sit near the Thai border, where gambling is illegal.