BANGKOK, July 13 (Reuters) – At least 27 people have been killed in a fire at a pub in Bangkok, Thailand’s prime minister and other officials said on Monday, in one of the deadliest such incidents in the tourism hub in recent years.
“There are more than 27 dead,” said Anwut Pho-ampai of the Ruamkatanyu Foundation, which operates a voluntary emergency rescue service.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who visited the site of the fire in the early hours of Monday, told reporters that based on survivor accounts, the pub rapidly filled with smoke after a fire broke out, forcing many to run to the back of the venue near the bathrooms, but there were no fire escapes.
“We have recovered 27 bodies, others are being sent to hospital,” Anutin said.
A Bangkok metropolitan administration official said 63 people were injured in the fire.
Exact details were not immediately clear, but the fire was believed to have started at the Rong Beer Na Lat Phrao pub in Bangkok’s Chatuchak district, local media reported.
(Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat, Kitiphong Thaichareon and Chayut Setboonsarng in Bangkok and Bipasha Dey in Bengaluru; Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Nia Williams and Andrea Ricci)
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