Fire raged through a 17-story hotel at a beach resort today, killing at least 74 people. Many of the dead were found near emergency exits, which had been locked to prevent guests from skipping out without paying.
Police said 64 people were injured and more bodies may be inside. Eight Europeans or Americans were among the dead, but they could not be further identified, police said.Firefighters searched through the smoking remains of the 450-room Royal Jomtien Hotel on Jomtien Beach in Pattaya, about 70 miles south of Bangkok.
Hundreds of people watched as firefighters carried blackened bodies from the hotel. Police said many bodies were found near the locked emergency doors.
The mayor of Pattaya, who called the fire the city's worst tragedy, said the hotel did not have sprinklers.
Interior Minister Snoh Thien-thong, who rushed to the scene from Bangkok, blamed many of the deaths on the fact that most of the hotel's fire exits had been locked.
One man jumped to his death from an 11th-floor window.
Police helicopters navigated through thick black flows of smoke to pluck terrified guests from the hotel roof.
Rescue teams on the roof dropped harnesses down to guests who were crying for help from windows, smoke billowing out from behind them.
Guests dangled out of upper-story windows, put their legs through the harnesses and swung out into the air before being pulled up the side of the building.