Forensics experts in Thailand struggled to identify charred corpses while 26 victims were still receiving emergency medical care yesterday following a New Year’s Eve fire in a packed Bangkok nightclub.
The death toll stood at 61 yesterday, although a final list of casualties, which include a number of foreigners, has yet to be issued, the Narenthorn Emergency Center coordinating the medical aid operation said.
Chatree Charoencheewakul at the center said two more deaths were reported on Friday night, while 26 people still in intensive care units at several Bangkok hospitals. Police were still trying to identify 15 bodies.
Interior Minister Chavarat Charnvirakul said on Friday that the fire could further damage the country’s image, already battered by widespread political protests and a recent weeklong closure of the capital’s two airports.
The unrest has crippled the country’s essential tourism industry at a time when the economy was already sagging amid the global financial meltdown.
The statement came as police investigated the cause of the fire.
Police Major General Jongrak Jutanont said authorities were focusing on whether the blaze was sparked by a countdown fireworks display organized by the club owners or by firecrackers brought in by guests.
A Singaporean was among the dead, while injured foreigners were from Australia, Belgium, Britain, France, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and the US, officials and reporters said.
More than 200 were injured from smoke inhalation, burns and injuries sustained during a stampede out the one main door of the club, which catered to young well-to-do Thais, tourists and expatriates.
“It’s about the lax law enforcement which we need to strengthen,” Charnvirakul told reporters while visiting victims at Chulalongkorn Hospital. “But an accident like this can happen everywhere and in every country. But I really don’t want this to happen because it came from carelessness.”
No charges related to the fire have yet been filed, but the owner, Thai-Chinese businessman Wisuth Setsawat, was initially charged with allowing underage customers into the Santika Club, Jongrak said.
A 17-year-old high school student was found among the dead, he said.
Local newspapers said Wisuth has asked the police to delay his interrogation until he recovers from injuries sustained in the blaze.
The government’s insurance commission said it was likely that the club had not renewed its fire insurance, which expired before the incident.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
RSS