Hotel fire leaves 10 dead as panicked guests jump from windows to escape

AT least 10 people are thought to be dead after a fire ripped through a Cambodian hotel and casino, said police.

The blaze broke out at the Grand Diamond City hotel-casino at 11.30pm local time in Poipet, a town at the Cambodian border with Thailand.

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A provisional Cambodian police report by Agence France-Presse said the fire happened at the Grand Diamond City hotel-casino.

“About 10 people died and 30 people injured,” read the report.

Local media outlets in Poipet have said that the death toll is above 10, however, those numbers have yet to be confirmed.

“When we arrived, we could not get in because the fire had already taken over (most of) the buildings,” said Patcharin Thaenthong, a leader of a Thai rescue team.

The casino was popular with gamblers and visitors from nearby Thailand, and many Thai nationals were in the hotel at the time of the fire, according to local media reports.

Around 400 people were inside the building when it went up in flames, according to police.

Video at the scene showed people hanging from windows or others trapped inside the building as crews worked to try to rescue them.

Fears are growing that the death toll will rise.

Poipet is a key border crossing between Thailand and Cambodia.

With gambling largely illegal in Thailand, many cross the border to the town to gamble.

Nhem Phoeng, chief of administration at Poipet’s municipal offices, said the fire was extinguished by Thursday morning.

Mostly Cambodian and Thai employees at the casino were killed at the scene, according to the Phnom Penh Post.

A Thai foreign ministry source told AlJazeera that they were working closely with local authorities.

Fire vehicles and emergency crews were also sent from Thailand to combat the flames, said the source.

A volunteer with Ruamkatanyu Foundation, a Thai rescue group said the fire started on the first floor but quickly spread through the multi-story building after it ignited the carpets.

The cause of the blaze is still unknown.

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