Bangkok Bar Fire Death Toll Rises to 30 as Police Probe Negligence

Survivors describe locked doors and missing exit signs in city's deadliest blaze in 17 years

The death toll from a fire that tore through a Bangkok music bar rose to 30 on Tuesday, as Thai police said negligence was their "primary theory" in the investigation into the country's deadliest blaze in 17 years.

More than 70 people were injured in the fire, with 24 remaining in critical condition in hospitals, according to a statement from the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration cited by NPR. Three additional deaths were confirmed Tuesday, the local district office said, according to the Guardian.

The blaze broke out in the early hours of Monday. An initial assessment by disaster officials found that an electrical short circuit in an air conditioner mounted in the ceiling sparked the fire, the Guardian reported.

Survivors and witnesses described chaotic scenes as flames and smoke swept through the venue. Some reported that exit doors were locked or hard to find, with little signage marking emergency routes, according to the BBC. "There was no way to get out," one witness told the BBC. A musician who was performing when the fire broke out said he crawled toward an exit and was thrown from the building by an explosion.

The bar's owner offered "deepest apologies for this tragic incident" and pledged to cooperate with investigators, the Guardian reported.

Police are examining whether the venue's exits were blocked or otherwise inaccessible at the time of the fire, officials said.

— Compiled from reporting by Al Jazeera, NPR, the Guardian and the BBC.