Three tourists have died after a fire at a hotel in central Bangkok in Thailand, AP reports. Several injured people have also been taken to hospital.
Swedish Lina Lindfors is currently traveling around Thailand and was on her way to the capital. Just as she got off the taxi at her hotel in Bangkok, several police cars and ambulances arrived and she quickly understood that something big had happened.
– There were red lights everywhere, she says.
Lived opposite: “People stood on the roof”
She ran up to her room, started unpacking her bag and stepped out onto her balcony. Lina’s hotel was opposite about 100 meters from the fatal fire.
– I opened the door and this chaos continued, there were any number of cars. Everyone in my hotel and in the surrounding hotels went out because they were wondering what happened, she says and continues:
– I saw people standing on the roof and that something had happened. We didn’t see any fire then, you’re quite shocked when that happens, but there was a lot of smoke. People were outraged. You saw how the fire engines sent lifts up and how women tried to jump into these small ones. They were super scared and there was a gap between them of probably half a meter as well. It was very high up, she says.
Popular with backpackers
It was during Sunday evening that the fire broke out in the city’s tourist area at the six-story Ember hotel. According to the police, it is popular with backpackers. A total of 75 people lived in the hotel and the cause of the fire is being investigated.
– It is terrible. You feel so great… You can’t do anything more than stand there and talk and try to check. In the end we chose to go down and away from there. Down on the street, people were confused and it was chaos, says Lina.
When the news reached Sweden, people started contacting Lina to make sure she was okay.
– It’s crazy to be involved in something like this. It was terrible to see, she says.
No data on Swedes
A witness who lived at the hotel told AP that the firefighters on the scene broke windows to be able to pull people out of the hotel.
There is no information that the dead or injured are Swedes.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not aware of any Swedes being among the injured or killed. The embassy in Bangkok is monitoring the incident and is in contact with the Thai authorities,” writes the Foreign Ministry in an email to TV4 Nyheterna.