Four dead in fire at Thai tourist nightclub

BANGKOK: A fire ripped through a nightclub popular with foreign tourists on the Thai resort island of Phuket early Friday, leaving at least four people dead and more than 20 others injured, officials said.

Foreigners were among the party-goers hurt in the blaze at the Tiger disco on the southern island, where rescue workers pulled the charred bodies of victims out of the smoldering wreckage.

"There are four confirmed dead. We believe they are foreign tourists but it's not yet confirmed," Phuket deputy governor Chamroen Tipayapongtada told.

Hospital workers in the seaside resort of Patong said the injured included both Thais and foreigners.

"We received more than 20 people who sustained injuries from the Tiger Pub fire. Most are suffering from suffocation," one hospital employee said.

"Two are in critical condition from severe burns. One of them is a French man who suffered burns on his torso," she added. "The four dead bodies were burnt beyond recognition. We cannot identify even their gender."

A team from the National Police Office was on its way to Phuket to try to identify the four people killed in the fire, which is believed to have broken out at about 4:00 am (2100 GMT Thursday) and was extinguished at around dawn.

Outside the blackened remains of the nightclub, much of which was destroyed by the blaze, police kept back a crowd of onlookers as ambulances arrived to collect the casualties.

Police said initial indications suggested a lightning strike or an exploding electrical transformer could have sparked the fire.

"Witnesses said there was a power blackout and it was raining. When the power came back they heard a loud explosion and the fire broke out," said Police Colonel Chirapat Phochanapan in Phuket.

Tomrongsak Boonyarunk, an executive with the Tiger Group which runs the nightclub, told that the venue was officially closed at the time of the fire but about 70-80 people were still inside sheltering from heavy rain.