Car Bomb Explosion Had Triggered Thai Hotel Fire; Death Toll Revised

A car bomb caused the deadly fire at a Southern Thailand hotel that killed three persons and injured several others Saturday, said the Thai national police chief.

The fire accident happened at the Lee Gardens Hotel in Hat Yai. Initially, it was believed that a gas explosion in the basement might have triggered the fire.

Surin Veerasuk, a senior mechanic from Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Regional Centre 12, who investigated the crime scene, confirmed that the car bomb explosion had led to the fire and said that the car's license plate number was unknown, according to a nationmultimedia.com report.

However, Songkhla provincial governor Grisada Boorach did not confirm the car bomb theory and he said that he would wait for Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) specialists to inspect the scene and decide what caused the blast, the natiuonmultimedia.com reported.

The incident happened on the same day as two bomb explosions killed 10 persons in Muslim-dominated Yala in southern region of the country.

It happened around 1 pm and most of the victims got injured by smoke inhalation and wounds as they jumped out of the building to escape. Initially, the death toll was announced as five but revised after two persons who initially thought to be dead were revived at the hospital.

The dead include two men and one woman. According to reports, one of them was burnt to death in the basement while other two died of smoke inhalation. The identity of the dead was not revealed. One of them was believed to be a Malaysian. A total of 416 people were injured in the incident, according to an AFP report.

Several hundreds of people, both Muslims and Buddhists, have been killed in Southern Thailand which has been witnessing violent insurgency since 2004.