World

U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister ‌Benjamin Netanyahu explored all possible paths to curb Iran's nuclear program in their meeting, including diplomacy, economic pressure and force, a senior Israeli official said on Wednesday.

Netanyahu did not tell Trump that Israel's preference now was for further attacks on Iran, the official said in ​briefings with reporters after the two men met in the White House on Tuesday.

"In the end, it's his decision," ​the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said of Trump.

The U.S. president has three options ⁠and all were discussed at length, said the official, listing them as "a (negotiated) deal, continuing the blockade and economic pressures, ​and a massive strike." Netanyahu also added unspecified new ideas to the mix, the official added.

Trump had voiced irritation with ​Netanyahu ahead of their meeting, complaining that details had surfaced publicly about the Israeli leader's plans to talk about new intelligence on Pickaxe Mountain, a deep-underground, nuclear-linked facility that Trump has threatened to bomb.

Pushing back against any notion of tensions over the issue, the official ​said the two allies readily share intelligence, denied that Netanyahu had pushed Trump to escalate militarily against Iran and ​left open the possibility of a diplomatic solution.

At the same time, the Israeli official acknowledged that Trump is the "senior partner" while Netanyahu ‌is the "junior ⁠partner" in the allies' conflict with Iran.

The official said that there were signs Iran's clerical rulers have been rattled by rising inflation and public frustration, but that the impact on the global economy and oil markets was also a consideration.

Oil prices shot up on Wednesday in one of the sharpest spikes since the war began on February 28, with a joint ​Israeli-U.S. aerial bombing campaign in ​Iran. Tehran responded with strikes ⁠on
Israel and Gulf states.

Israel had not taken part in the latest two-week U.S. bombing campaign this month that provoked Tehran to fire on U.S. bases in response, but ​it has warned Tehran that it would respond forcefully if attacked.

Israel sees its biggest threat ​from Iran's ⁠nuclear program and wants to be sure it can never get a nuclear weapon, the official said. Tehran has insisted it is not seeking a bomb.

On Wednesday, the United States and Saudi Arabia struck Iran-backed paramilitary groups in Iraq, and Trump vowed to "beat ⁠the fucking ​shit" out of Iran for firing on U.S. troops days after ​he halted air strikes.

Iran confirmed overnight that it had fired on U.S. bases in Jordan and at ships in the Strait of Hormuz, and also ​spurned an Omani proposal to jointly manage the strait.

(Reuters)

Oil prices surged over 4% on Monday as energy shipments via ​the Strait of Hormuz remained under threat, with the U.S. and ‌Iran announcing renewed military strikes.

Brent crude futures climbed $3.10, or 4.08%, to $79.11 by 0325 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose $2.95, or 4.11%, to $74.36 a barrel.

U.S. forces completed another wave of strikes ​against Iran on Sunday, hitting dozens of targets at multiple locations with ​precision munitions, the Central Command said. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on ⁠Monday they attacked U.S. military bases in Kuwait and Bahrain.

U.S. President Donald Trump said ​on Sunday that the Strait of Hormuz is open to commercial traffic, although Iran ​declared earlier that it closed the strait after a vessel traveled on an unapproved route and was struck.

Some 20% of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas transited the strait before ​the war began at the end of February.

Six vessels transited the strait on ​Sunday, ship-tracking data from Kpler showed, the lowest number in five weeks.

The escalating attacks cast further ‌doubt ⁠on the future of an interim U.S.-Iranian agreement signed last month that aimed to reopen the strait and end the war after a further 60 days of negotiations.

Following the agreement, global oil supply rose by 4.1 million barrels per day in ​June, but remained 9.4 ​million bpd below ⁠pre-war levels, the International Energy Agency said in its monthly report on Friday.

"Hopes of a relatively quick resolution to the recent ​skirmishes may be in doubt after tension escalated over the ​weekend," ANZ ⁠analysts said in a note.

IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said the relatively tame rise in oil prices suggested the market was taking the view that the current flare-up ⁠represented an ​escalation within a fragile truce and fell well ​short of a complete collapse of the ceasefire.

"How accurate that view is remains to be seen," he ​said in a note.

(Reuters)

Oman has won backing from Gulf states for a plan that would let Tehran collect voluntary fees to use the Strait of ​Hormuz, a Gulf source told Reuters on Tuesday, a path towards ending the disruption to oil trade caused by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

President Donald ‌Trump, who abruptly called off a two-week U.S. bombing campaign over the weekend in his latest strategic U-turn, said there were “good talks” under way with Iran but threatened to restart strikes unless negotiations deliver. Iran denies seeking to resume talks with the United States.

Washington launched its renewed bombing campaign earlier this month to break Iran’s grip on the strait, through which about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas ​flowed before the war.

Iran effectively shut the strait to ships other than its own after the United States and Israel attacked on February 28. A deal last ​month between the United States and Iran partially reopened it, but the agreement collapsed in early July after Iran fired on ships using ⁠a channel it does not approve.

Iran has said it wants to manage the strait alongside Oman which controls the opposite shore, and charge service fees to ships that use ​it. Washington wants to return to the status quo prior to the war, when ships were able to pass freely with no payments, and says charging mandatory fees would be illegal.

Under ​the Omani proposal, Iran would not exercise sole control and fees would be voluntary, a source told Reuters. The system would be analogous to one in place on Asia’s Strait of Malacca, where Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore ask ships to pay voluntary contributions to fund navigation, environmental protection and search-and-rescue operations.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi discussed the Strait of Hormuz with his Omani and Saudi counterparts on Monday and stressed ​the need for regional cooperation, an Iranian Foreign Ministry statement said.

TRUMP WARNS OF MORE STRIKES

Trump called off his latest campaign of air strikes after receiving advice from military commanders ​that the strategy had run its course. The 13 nights of renewed U.S. bombing killed scores in Iran and destroyed bridges and tunnels across the south as well as military targets.

Iran had responded with ‌attacks on ⁠U.S. bases in neighbouring countries that killed four service members, and strikes on civil infrastructure in Gulf states that it said was retaliation for U.S. strikes on civilian targets.

Iran has said it would hold fire as long as Washington does. But drone attacks were reported in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and northern Iran on Monday, and Jordan reported another drone being downed on Tuesday.

Speaking on Monday, Trump expressed optimism for a deal to end the five-month conflict, while warning that U.S. strikes would resume if negotiations failed to deliver.

“I think there’s a good ​chance that something could happen, and if ​it does, good, if it doesn’t, we ⁠go back to doing what we were doing two days ago.”

Iran says it has not sought any new negotiations with the United States, which it accuses of violating the agreement reached last month on a framework for talks to end the war.

The U.S. president is ​scheduled to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on Tuesday. Although Israel was involved in the initial bombing campaign, ​it has not been part ⁠of subsequent peace talks, and recent relations between the two leaders have been strained.

Trump has had to rein in the Israeli leader from attacking targets in Lebanon to try to weaken Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, complicating peace talks with Tehran.

The end of the U.S. bombing campaign over the weekend sent oil prices tumbling by around 8% on Monday, and the fall continued on Tuesday. Brent crude ⁠futures were ​down more than 2.5% at around $86 a barrel by mid-morning on Tuesday.

Washington and Tehran reached an agreement in ​June on a framework for talks meant to take place by the end of August to resolve major issues such as Iran’s nuclear programme.

But they have disputed the meaning of the memorandum’s language about the strait, with Washington ​insisting it requires Tehran to allow free travel, while Iran says it grants it the authority to supervise transit.

Source: Reuters

-Agencies

President Donald Trump warned Iran that the US military would “completely decimate and destroy all areas” of the Islamic Republic if its leaders attempted or carried out his assassination.

The president’s message, in a Truth Social post late on July 10, came at the end of a week in which clashes between Iran and the US seemed to extinguish hope that the tentative accord reached between the two countries will hold, and after the days-long funeral of former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Khamenei, who has been succeeded by his son Mojtaba Khamenei, was killed in an attack as the US and Israel began their military campaign against Iran at the end of February.

“1,000 missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat, pronounced in many corners of the Globe, to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate, the sitting President of the United States of America, in this case, ME!” Trump wrote.

“Orders have been given, and the US Military is ready, willing and able,” he added.

On his way back from the NATO summit in Turkey earlier this week, Trump switched Air Force One planes at a British military base.

Asked by reporters, after departing Britain, if a security concern prompted the decision, Trump said, “no, no, why would there be?”

When asked if he was aware of any credible threat from Iran against Air Force One, Trump said: “Well, I have a threat all the time. I’m No. 1 on their list.”

Trump has been the target of several assassination attempts. During the 2024 presidential election, he was briefed by Biden administration officials regarding “real and specific threats from Iran” to kill him, his campaign said.

It was reported this week that Israel had warned Trump of a new Iranian plot.

(Source: The Strait Times)

A major earthquake rocked Japan's southern Kumamoto prefecture on Tuesday, knocking out power to thousands of homes, rupturing roads ‌and injuring at least 50 people.

Speaking to reporters at her office in Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the full extent of casualties and damage from the 7.1 magnitude quake was still being assessed.

"We have already been informed that people have been injured," Takaichi said. "Power outages and fires have occurred in some areas, and there has also ​been damage to roads and bridges and the collapse of buildings."

One hospital had reported more than 50 injuries, public broadcaster ​NHK said. Several people on a high-speed train at the time of the quake were also injured, Nikkei ⁠newspaper said.

Multiple buildings were damaged, including an Aeon (8267.T), shopping mall that NHK said had suffered an explosion, while footage from the broadcaster also ​showed other buildings on fire or partially collapsed. A spokesperson for Aeon did not immediately have a comment on the situation.

Large cracks appeared on major roads, including ​an elevated highway, and a goods train derailed, according to NHK, while rail services were halted and flights grounded.

TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, evacuated workers from its plant in the area as a precaution, a spokesperson for the firm said.

Sony, and Fujifilm, also evacuated staff from their plants in the area, Nikkei newspaper reported. A Sony ​spokesperson earlier said it was checking the situation.

More than 150,000 people have been instructed to go to evacuation centres, the disaster management agency said.

Residents ​in the areas that felt the biggest tremors must beware of further strong quakes for about a week as well as the risk of landslides, an ‌official for ⁠the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said.

TRAINS HALTED, AIRPORT CLOSED

Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries, with a tremor occurring at least every 5 minutes. Located along the "Ring of Fire" of volcanoes and oceanic trenches partly encircling the Pacific Basin, Japan accounts for about 20% of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or more.

The Japanese government issued emergency earthquake warnings for Kumamoto, Nagasaki, Kagoshima, Fukuoka, Saga, Oita, and Miyazaki prefectures, all ​on Japan's southern Kyushu island. The ​JMA also initially issued a ⁠tsunami warning for a wave measuring 1 m (3.28 feet) but later lifted it.

Kyushu Electric Power said about 40,000 homes had lost power as a result of the latest quake, while railway company JR Kyushu said ​that it had suspended services, including its high-speed bullet trains. Kumamoto airport also shut its runway, as ​airlines diverted and ⁠cancelled flights.

Telecoms operators KDDI and Docomo said there was disruption to their mobile phone services due to power shortages and transmission-line failures.

There were no irregularities reported at the nuclear power stations in the area, Japan's nuclear regulation authority said.

A massive earthquake in Kumamoto 10 years ago killed 275 people ⁠and injured ​a further 2,739, according to an official count, and damaged thousands of buildings including ​the city's castle, a top tourist site.

Some portions of the stone walls at the castle also collapsed as a result of Tuesday's quake, an official at the castle's office ​said.

Source: Reuters

--Agencies 

At least nine police personnel were killed in night-long clashes with militants in southwestern Pakistan, an official said on Tuesday.

The incident occurred in Ziarat district, also a tourist destination in Balochistan province, where police and militants clashed in the early hours of Tuesday, deputy commissioner Ziarat Abdul Quddus Achakzai told reporters.

The clash started after militants attacked a security checkpoint, Achakzai said, adding that the bodies of the slain cops were shifted to a local hospital.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but the outlawed separatist group, Balochistan Liberation Army, has long been involved in attacks on security forces and government installations in the restive region.

Security forces launched an operation in the region after the attack.

Balochistan, a mineral-rich region and a key route for the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, has long been plagued by separatist militancy.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Iran said Monday that it is not currently engaged in negotiations with the US and that any future talks would depend on Washington changing its conduct.

Addressing a press briefing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei dismissed reports that Tehran had sought negotiations with the US.

“That does not accord with our principles. Claims that Iran has requested negotiations are merely reports,” Baqaei said in his comments carried by the semi-official Mehr news agency.

He said Iran has consistently viewed diplomacy as a tool for safeguarding its interests.

“We have never hesitated to use diplomatic tools to protect our national interests. We consider diplomacy a means of protecting Iran's national interests,” he said.

While acknowledging that mediators may be conveying messages between the two sides, Baqaei said: “At the present time, we are not conducting any negotiations with the American side.”

Asked about Iran's conditions for starting negotiations, Baqaei said the US “must first demonstrate more responsible behavior.”

“The United States must learn how to behave like a responsible government,” he said, accusing Washington of acting “like a mafia gang” over the past one to two years by disregarding international law.

“As long as this behavior continues, we cannot hope to create a favorable public atmosphere,” he added.

On Sunday, Iranian military spokesperson Amir Mohammad Akraminia said the US had halted its attacks over the previous two days and that Iran's "counter-operations" had also stopped.

According to an Axios report on Saturday, US President Donald Trump had directed the US military not to launch new strikes on Iran, ending nearly two weeks of daily attacks.

​​​​​​​Tensions between the US and Iran have intensified in recent weeks, with Washington carrying out attacks on Iran and Tehran responding by targeting what it said were US military facilities and equipment in countries across the region.

A man has been rescued alive after being trapped for eight days in the rubble of a building that collapsed after twin earthquakes in Venezuela.

Emergency workers managed to free Hernán Gil more than 100 hours after they had first located him under 140 tonnes of rubble.

A Chilean firefighter had earlier described the rescue operation as "without doubt the most complex and technically difficult which I've had to tackle".

Almost 2,300 people are confirmed to have died in the quakes which hit Venezuela on 24 June, and tens of thousands are still missing.

Allan Madrigal, a paramedic with the Costa Rican Red Cross, told journalists at the site that Gil had "emerged just perfect" from the ordeal.

Madrigal is the rescuer who heard Gil's faint cries for help emerging from the rubble on Sunday.

"It was an emotional moment," he recalled, explaining that at first he had not trusted his own ears and asked a colleague to confirm that he “wasn't just imagining it”

From that moment on, rescuers raced to try and dig the security guard out.

Gil had been on duty in a small concrete booth in the basement of the parking lot adjacent to the Galerias Playa Grande mall in Catia La Mar when the twin quakes struck.

It appears that the booth created a shell around him, protecting him from the 140 tonnes of rubble which collapsed around and on top of him.

"He has told us that he does not even have a crushed nail," another Costa Rican Red Cross worker said shortly before Gil was pulled from the rubble.

Gil had been given water and medics had attached him to an intravenous drip while teams from Venezuela, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Portugal and the United States worked to free him.

Parts of the access ducts rescuers built to reach him collapsed several times, highlighting the dangers the work posed to the rescuers as well as Gil.

Overnight, the search teams were finally able to establish visual contact with the survivor.

In footage recorded by a small camera inserted into the rubble where Gil was trapped, a Chilean firefighter could be heard asking him to turn his head towards the camera.

One of his eyes was bloodshot and he was wearing a face mask, which rescuers had earlier passed to him through a small hole to protect him from the dust and debris created by their efforts to free him.

The firefighter also asked him to don goggles to protect his eyes as rescuers continued to carefully dig away at the rubble surrounding him.

Marco Antonio Franco from the Mexican Red Cross described Gil as "a cheerful man".

He told Mexican news site Milenio that the survivor "even asked for hydration drinks of specific flavours he likes", adding that "of course we indulged him".

“He himself drives us on, telling us to carry on. He recognises our team members, saying 'how nice that you came back and that you're with me again'.”

According to Franco, the rescuers and Gil kept up a steady chatter about his family and about the challenging rescue.

Madrigal, the paramedic who located Gil, was on his first international rescue mission and said the work he had carried out in Venezuela had changed him.

"The lad who came here a week ago is not the same one that will return to Costa Rica, believe me," he told reporters.

Source: BBC

President Donald Trump said Monday that Israel would have been “terminated” without U.S. military intervention against Iran, arguing that his administration’s strikes on Tehran’s nuclear program prevented destruction to America’s closest ally in the Middle East.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One while traveling to Michigan, Trump defended the U.S. campaign against Iran, saying it fundamentally altered the balance of power in the region.

“You know who wouldn’t survive without us? Israel. Bibi’s coming, he’ll tell you,” Trump said. “If I didn’t get involved, and I didn’t blow up those nuclear, essentially, soon to be nuclear weapons to dust, Israel would have been terminated months ago.”

Later Monday, while delivering remarks at the General Motors Proving Ground in Milford, Michigan, Trump touted the United States’ strikes in Iran, saying the U.S. had destroyed Tehran’s navy and air force, while diminishing its drone and missile manufacturing capabilities.

While he touted the U.S. military strikes on Iran as a major success, the audience was notably less enthusiastic about his remarks on the war than they were about immigration and the southern border.

Trump was in Milford to bolster support among auto workers and voters in the key battleground state by highlighting his administration’s efforts to revive domestic manufacturing, expand auto industry jobs and strengthen the economy ahead of the midterm elections.

Trump’s remarks came one day before he is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House to discuss the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

Trump said he and Netanyahu remain “pretty close” on Iran ahead of their scheduled meeting Tuesday, though he acknowledged minor differences without elaborating.

The U.S. and Iran halted attacks over the weekend, but Trump has repeatedly warned that military action could resume if the talks fail. The president told reporters Iran had reached out seeking renewed negotiations.

“Iran took a beating over the last 14 days, and they asked us very nicely, ‘Please stop. Let’s meet,’” Trump said. “If we don’t make a deal, we go back to the same thing.”

The president also brushed aside concerns raised by Netanyahu over the potential sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, signaling that he would not allow foreign leaders to dictate U.S. arms sales.

(Agencies)

A plane carrying a pilot and 11 passengers planning to spend a sunny afternoon skydiving crashed on Sunday in Missouri, killing all aboard, authorities said.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol said in a statement that troopers were at the crash site, assisting the Butler Police Department and Bates County Sheriff's Office. The crash occurred near the Butler Memorial Airport. The small town of Butler has a population of about 4,300 people and is roughly 105 kilometres south of Kansas City.

Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Justin Ewing said the plane was taking people up to skydive. Emergency responders got a call that a plane was down and engulfed in flames at about 11:30 a.m. local time on Sunday, he said.

"It landed in a field adjacent to the airport, but I think they're shutting down the roadway just as a precaution," Ewing said.

A heap of blue and silver mangled metal lay in the grass near the airport with a massive lineup of emergency vehicles on the street beside it.

Teams from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) were en route to the crash site on Sunday afternoon to investigate, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

The private plane was operated by Skydive Kansas City, said Dennis Jacobs, the acting airport manager and Bates County Emergency Management Agency director.

"It had just taken off and made a left turn" before the crash, Jacobs said. "In my opinion, I think it was losing power, and he was trying to make it over to the highway and land, and he stalled and went down nose first and caught fire."

Emergency responders were able to put out the fire shortly after the crash, Jacobs said, calling the scene "brutal."

First responders have checked the area under the flight path and did not find anyone who might have tried to jump out before the crash, Jacobs said.

The Pacific Aerospace 750XL that crashed is a single-engine turboprop plane model that's popular for skydiving but has also proven useful for other uses, including cargo, aerial surveying and medical evacuation flights. The aircraft can carry as many as 17 skydivers and is capable of taking off and landing on short runways. The plane that crashed was manufactured in 2010, according to FAA records.

'A whole history of skydiving accidents'

The small airport serves about 30 aircraft, all privately owned, including crop-dusting companies and skydiving operators, Ewing said.

Skydiving companies operate in the region eight or nine months a year, with the season usually starting in late March or early April and lasting into October or November. Someone answering the phone at Skydive Kansas City declined to speak to a reporter from The Associated Press.

It's not yet known what factors may have contributed to the crash or caused it, Ewing said, and those details will be part of the investigation carried out by NTSB officials.

Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti said poor maintenance has been a factor in a number of previous skydiving plane crashes because these companies are not held to a high standard under FAA rules.

Guzzetti said skydiving companies are governed by the same rules any private plane owner has to follow and not the more stringent rules that charter flight operators and airlines adhere to.

"There's been a whole history of skydiving accidents for inadequate maintenance and deficient safety culture," said Guzzetti, who used to be a crash investigator for both the NTSB and FAA.

Source: CBC 

An explosive fire at a popular bar and restaurant in Thailand’s capital Bangkok has killed 27 people, the country’s prime minister and other officials said on July 13, in one of the deadliest such incidents in the tourism hub in recent years.

“We have recovered 27 bodies. Others are being sent to hospital,” said Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who visited the site of the fire that broke out at 11.57pm on July 12 (12.57am Singapore time).

Footage on Facebook showed screaming patrons fleeing the bar as flames and smoke envelope the front door before an explosion causes a horizontal plume of fire to jet out of the exit. One patron is on fire, while another emerges with burnt clothes.

Thai news outlet The Bangkok Post said the dead comprised nine men and 18 women. It added that firefighters put out the blaze near Soi Lat Phrao 1 Road in about half an hour.

The New York Times said two of the bar’s musicians were among the dead.

Authorities said they had identified 10 of the victims so far, nine of them Thai nationals and the other from Laos.

Another 63 people were injured, 22 critically, in the incident at the Rong Beer Na Lat Phrao bar and have been hospitalised, said Suriyachai Rawiwan, director of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation.

The Bangkok Post said the injured were taken to 16 hospitals.

The restaurant owner was among those receiving medical treatment, according to Thai news outlet The Nation.

The bar and restaurant is located in a busy part of northern Bangkok connected by its urban rail systems, adjacent to two shopping malls and within walking distance of cinemas, large parks and the Chatuchak weekend market that is popular with foreign tourists.

No leniency if laws have been broken: Anutin

Anutin, speaking to reporters at City Hall later on July 13, said the venue was licensed to operate as a restaurant, adding that police were looking at its inspection record.

He assured the victims and their families they would “receive the best possible care”.

Initial inquiries suggested there were “blind spots” without a visible fire escape route, he said.

He urged everyone to wait for the investigators’ report, but added: “There will be no leniency if any laws have been broken.”

He said rescue workers had been permitted to answer calls made to the mobile phones of injured or deceased customers so that information from worried relatives could be recorded, reported The Nation.

The initial assessment was that an electrical short circuit in an air-conditioner located in the ceiling caused the fire, the disaster administration said.

Based on survivor accounts, officials said the fire is understood to have started at the front stage section of the bar and spread rapidly, forcing many to run to the back of the venue, which houses the kitchen and the bathrooms.

“There are two fire exits, one is near the kitchen. There were beer crates in the way,” Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt told reporters, adding that there was a table in the way of the other fire exit, hindering evacuation.

“We need to wait for forensic investigators to examine the scene more closely,” he added.

The live music venue has a stage, two bars and a kitchen, with a total capacity of more than 300 people, as well as four fire exits, according to a post on its Facebook page promoting a live show in July.

The Bangkok Post quoted Chadchart as saying that it operated in a single-storey concrete building and musical performances were allowed inside. It had passed inspection in April.

He also quoted waiters as saying there there were about 300 customers inside when the fire broke out. Normally, the place attracts 600 to 700 people each night.

Thai media outlet Khaosod said some of the victims were tourists who were eating and drinking inside the venue when they were trapped and unable to escape.

By the time the rescue workers arrived at the scene of the accident, the fire that witnesses said ignited at the front of the venue’s stage had already burnt through the area, according to the Disaster department’s Suriyachai.

“We have to wait for the police to investigate,” he added.

Preliminary findings show the pub had two emergency exits, one of which passed through the kitchen area, reported Bloomberg. Investigators will determine whether the layout and use of that escape route met required safety standards.

Governor Chadchart said the pub had procured proper permits and had fire exits, but the fire spread rapidly and smoke filled the room, potentially making it hard for patrons to escape.

He said the blaze spread through the ceiling towards the front entrance, prompting customers to rush to the back, where the fire exits were located. But some customers became confused and rushed into the toilets where many then passed out. He said the collapsed victims, including those in front of the fire exits, blocked the escape route for other fleeing customers, reported the Bangkok Post.

Smoke, then an explosion and fire

Firefighter Chakrit Khongkom, 45, said he arrived on the first fire truck to see the Rong Beer Na Lat Phrao bar alight and many patrons stranded inside, several of them trying to escape from the back of the venue. The few people coming through the front of the venue had suffered burns.

“The fire was not that aggressive, but the smoke had engulfed 100 per cent of the venue. The smoke was everywhere,” he said. “Most of the survivors were choking on smoke.”

An emergency worker’s body-camera footage seen by Reuters showed firefighters in oxygen masks moving through the darkened remains of the pub with torches as they searched for survivors and victims.

Several victims can be seen lying prone on the floor near the pub’s toilets while rescue workers carried in stretchers.

The video also shows what appears to be the fire-damaged main room of the venue, with bar tables and stools still visible.

“We sent in a rescue and search squad and found that a lot of people were inside the toilet. Most of them were trying to escape to the back because they saw that the flame was at the front,” said Chakrit.

In the early hours of the morning, emergency personnel remained at the scene as bodies were prepared for transport and forensic teams collected evidence to help identify the victims.

Numbered bodies lay in two rows awaiting removal, surrounded by a large number of rescue workers. Firefighters stood near the pub’s entrance, its facade scorched and blackened by the blaze.

‘Smoke, no oxygen’

Motorbike taxi driver Surin Jaiharn, 45, said he saw the fire burst into the street from the bar door and helped about five people fleeing with burns and blistering skin.

“I feel depressed. I saw many deaths and I do not know the fate of the people I helped,” Surin told AFP.

He said he used clothing to put out flames on the victims’ bodies, while another driver carried a female victim away from the danger.

A band member at the venue told local media that smoke suddenly filled the room after the lights briefly went out, followed by a massive explosion and fire.

“After the explosion, I didn’t see anybody trying to run. Most of them were on the floor asking for help,” he told reporters, his head still bandaged, without giving his name.

“I ran towards the door from the stage, about five metres. It was dark and there was smoke, no oxygen.”

A Laotian tourist, Kan Kutirat told AFP he was drinking alone at the bar at around 10pm when he noticed smoke rising near the stage.

He said: “I heard loud screaming from a lot of people inside – chaos happened.”

He posted a video on Facebook, verified by AFP, that showed patrons, several with their shirts ablaze, fleeing into the street as flames surged out the door.

“I never experienced anything like this before,” he said. “The images are still stuck in my mind.”

He said he helped carry a woman out of the bar.

In his post, he added: “I could only get one person out. I tried my best. I’m sorry.”

In the hours after the fire, Sukanya Wongwongwai waited outside the pub, looking for a friend who is missing. Survivors had told her about the chaos that had ensued inside.

“My friend, who was singing on stage, said at first they noticed the smell of something burning, then a little after they saw the ceiling was on fire,” said Sukanya, 32.

“Some people were injured because of the (debris) from the ceiling because it seems that the ceiling was made out of foam material to absorb sound.”

Thai national police said in a social media post at around 2am on July 13 that the fire had been “brought under control”.

Suriyachai said authorities had arrived five minutes after the incident was reported, but by that time “the fire had already spread through the whole area, making it quite difficult for us to get in”.

“When we went in to search, we found tables and seating blocking the way everywhere and the heat was intense,” Suriyachai told AFP.

Most of the victims’ bodies were found in a rear restroom, the official said.

Thailand’s lax approach to health and safety regulations, particularly in its bars and nightclubs, has long raised concerns.

Twenty-five people died after a fire ripped through the Mountain B nightclub in Thailand’s eastern Chonburi province in 2022.

A huge fire tore through a New Year’s Eve party at Bangkok’s Santika club in 2009, killing 67 people and injuring more than 200.

(REUTERS, AFP, THE NATION/ANN, NYTIMES)

Thailand’s Princess Bajrakitiyabha, who has been in a coma for more than three years, has died, the royal household has announced. She was 47.

She collapsed in December 2022 while exercising her dogs. Her doctors attributed it to a severely irregular heartbeat, caused by a mycoplasma infection in her heart.

With her death, the Thai royal family has lost its most visibly accomplished member, and someone who might have played a pivotal role in an as yet unclear succession.

She was the eldest of King Vajiralongkorn’s seven children, born on 7 December 1978 to his first wife and cousin, Princess Soamsawali.

“The medical team provided the closest and most intensive care possible, but her condition continued to decline progressively,” the palace said in a statement on Friday morning, adding that she passed away at 19:48 local time (12:48 GMT) the previous day in Chulalongkorn Hospital.

She trained as a lawyer, getting two post-graduate degrees from Cornell University in the US. She worked briefly at the Thai mission to the United Nations in New York, before returning to Thailand to work in the Attorney-General’s offices in Bangkok and elsewhere in the country.

From 2012 to 2014 she was Thailand’s ambassador to Austria, where she built a relationship with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

She started speaking out on the need for penal reform, with a particular focus on vulnerable women who end up in prison; Thailand has one of the world’s highest numbers of female inmates.

Once back in Thailand she became the UNODC’s Ambassador for the Rule of Law in South East Asia, and continued to advocate reform of Thailand’s criminal justice system, in which severe sentences are often handed down on people convicted of relatively minor drug possession charges.

In 2021 her father made her a chief of staff in his private bodyguard, giving her the rank of general.

Princess Bajrakitiyabha was also a fitness enthusiast who often took part in long-distance runs.

Her abilities, and the trust her father appeared to have in her, made her an inevitable topic of speculation about the royal succession.

King Vajiralongkorn, who is 73 years old, has not yet named an heir. Thai custom dictates that the heir should be a male, but a 1974 amendment to the constitution does allow a female to take the throne.

The king has five sons, but four by his second marriage were disowned in 1996 and have lived since then with their mother in the US. His fifth son, Dipangkorn, by his third wife, is the presumed heir, although questions have been raised about his ability to perform the role of monarch, in a country where the royal institution carries so much influence.

For many Thai royalists, Princess Bajrakitiyabha seemed the most promising figure to succeed her father, either as queen or as a regent to help Prince Dipangkorn.

Her death leaves the question of the succession in Thailand unanswered, and the severity of the country’s lese majeste law rules out any public discussion of it.

Source: BBC