Fire in Thai nightclub on holiday island Phuket kills four and injures tourists
Flames engulf the Tiger Disco. PA
A fire in a Thai nightclub has killed four people and seriously injured 11 people, including tourists, on the holiday island of Phuket.
According to the Press Association, a fire swept through the Tiger Disco, a popular nightclub with British tourists, yesterday morning.
Police Colonel Jirapat Phothanaphan said the fire broke out about two hours before dawn at the club, which is on a main entertainment street in Phuket's Patong beach area.
The Daily Mail reported that at least two of the four fatalities are believed to be foreign tourists and four of the seriously injured are French tourists.
Police are appealing for hotel owners to report any missing guests to try to identify the charred remains of the victims in the club.
The remaining victims were believed to be two Japanese men and an unidentified Thai national.
The fire broke out nearly two hours after the club should have been legally closed. The Daily Mail reported that the cause of the fire was first believed to be down to a lightning strike on a nearby electrical generator, but there was also electrical work carried out in the club earlier in the week and the explosion took place in the club.
Of the injured were French tourists who suffered burns and smoke inhalation and those who suffered minor injuries during the stampede to get out of the disco, which on the second floor of the building.
Thai hotel worker Kanyaporn Kantong, 25, was treated for burns at Patong Hospital and said: 'Someone pushed me out the door. I owe them my life.'
'I went there with two friends about 2.30am. We saw the smoke but I thought it was a disco special effect. Then I looked up at the disco ball and saw the flames.
'We knew then that it was serious. I didn't know which way to go. Luckily, someone pushed me in the right direction.'
Legal Counsel for Tiger Discotheque, Thamrongsak Boonrak, said: 'I have been told that lightning struck a transformer. The power shut down and came back on three times before staff heard an explosion. At first they thought it was a bomb.'
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