A huge fire raged out of control through a densely populated slum area in central Bangkok yesterday, with hundreds of firefighters battling the blaze near the Australian and German embassies and several luxury hotels, officials and witnesses said.
The fire engulfed up to 700 wooden houses in the Tungmahamek slum area, home to about 7,000 people behind Bangkok's Sathorn business district, and threatened to spread beyond the congested region as strong winds fanned the flames.
PHOTO: AFP
A large plume of black smoke was seen from several kilometers away rising hundreds of meters into the air.
"As of now, we have not been able to control the fire," Sathorn district director Prasan Bumrungpunt told Bangkok radio from the chaotic scene of the blaze nearly two hours after it began.
"All of the wooden houses in the slum have burned down," he said, adding that some 600 to 700 shanty-style houses had been in the area.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Over 100 firetrucks had converged on Tungmahamek, and several ambulances were standing by on the slum's periphery, but the vehicles appeared unable to navigate the narrow alleyways, a photographer witnessed.
He saw hundreds of residents clogging the narrow streets, their arms full of valuables, or dragging possessions such as refrigerators or gas cylinders out of the fire's reach.
Several volunteers and residents were also seen throwing buckets of water onto flaming rooftops and escorting people to safety.
Metropolitan police spokesman Colonel Phanurat Meepien said the fire had spread to the grounds of a nearby police station and engulfed at least 50 police apartments.
Despite the scope of the blaze there were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries.
"It's too early to know if there are any casualties," he said.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
RSS