A 57-floor hotel and shopping building has gone up in flames in Bangkok, Thailand. At least three people have died jumping to escape the fire, which ripped through the popular tourist spot.
The fire broke out at the Centara Grand hotel and Centralworld shopping plaza at around 6pm local time on Wednesday. Plumes of black smoke spewed out of the building, and three jumped to their deaths from the horrific blaze, local media reported.
Shocking footage shared on social media shows the smoke pouring out of the burning skyscraper.
Bangkok’s typically gridlocked traffic hampered the efforts of emergency services to reach the scene of the blaze, but the fire was reportedly brought under control an hour or so after it broke out.
Bangkok Governor Assawin Kwanmuang told reporters that the fire broke out on the eighth floor, in a document storage room.
The Centara Grand hotel is the flagship hotel of the Central Group, and one of the largest hotels in the Thai capital.
Wednesday’s blaze is not the first time the Centara Grand has gone up in flames. Anti-government protesters set the hotel and shopping complex on fire in 2010, after months of demonstrations. The fire gutted a department store and left parts of the building closed for months of repair work.