About 10 people are dead and more than a dozen on life support after a fire at a Cambodian border casino, with photos from the scene showing people desperately huddled on ledges and perched on windowsills in a bid to escape the flames.
The blaze at the Grand Diamond City hotel-casino in Poipet, on the Thai border, broke out late Wednesday night, Cambodian police said.
Sa Kaeo Governor Parinya Phothisat said another 60-odd people caught up in the conflagration had already been checked and cleared by Thai hospitals. A Thai foreign ministry source said they had been coordinating closely with local authorities, "including by sending in fire trucks from the Thai side." There are numerous hotel-casinos clustered along the Thai border, with Poipet a popular holiday destination for visitors from Thailand, where most forms of gambling are also illegal.