Families claim bodies as Bangkok fire toll rises to 30

Grieving relatives of the victims of a huge Bangkok bar fire claimed their bodies Tuesday as the death toll rose to 30, even as others held out hope that missing loved ones were alive.

Flames tore through the Rong Beer Na Lat Phrao bar and restaurant in the Thai capital late on Sunday evening during a live music performance, sending people fleeing, several with their clothing ablaze.

Twenty-seven people were declared dead in the early hours of Monday, with another succumbing to their injuries later that day.

By Tuesday morning, Bangkok's Chatuchak district office put the death toll at 30, with 75 people injured -- 24 in critical condition.

Relatives of the dead gathered at Police General Hospital on Tuesday to claim the bodies of their loved ones.

At the rear of the hospital, grey coffins with gilded bas-reliefs emerged before the cameras of dozens of journalists.

Some coffins were loaded into the back of ambulances to be transported to the home provinces of the deceased.

Inside one, a man held an incense stick over a coffin. In another, a grey-haired woman laid one hand atop the coffin while she dabbed her eyes with a tissue.

Nuttakarn "Mint" Sevoy, 30, came for her childhood friend Top Sarobol who, like many killed on Sunday night, is believed to have died from smoke inhalation.

Nuttakarn told AFP the family consider themselves "fortunate that they were able to verify his identity accurately because his body wasn't burned to the point of being unidentifiable".

But the family, particularly his grandmother, was struggling with his loss.

"She kept saying that it should have been him to cremate her... (he) should be the one attending her funeral, not her coming to pick up her grandson's body like this," Nuttakarn said.

Jarunee Phosawad came from Roi Et in eastern Thailand to oversee the cremation of her cousin Kochaporn Sotharat's body and the return home of her ashes.

"She was a joyful person," the 46-year-old told AFP, adding: "I felt cold when I heard she was dead."

Kochaporn was a single mother of a daughter who also came to Bangkok to do a DNA test, Jarunee said.

"I do not know how she will live after this; she had only her mum."

- 'Holding onto hope' -

For others, there is still hope.

Booyaporn Sermsiri was at the hospital searching for her 25-year-old daughter, Jarawee "Cartoon" Sermsiri, who remains missing.

"Since we haven't found her yet, we can only wait. We are holding onto hope," she told AFP.

She said Cartoon's friend had called her early on Monday morning, saying there had been a fire and she couldn't reach her.

Booyaporn, 51, said she had given a DNA sample and was told by police the result could come back later Tuesday.

"I am praying. Praying that she is alright," she said.

Forensic police have been scouring the wreckage as authorities seek to establish how the fire started and why it was so deadly, looking at a possible electrical fault and also whether emergency exits were blocked.

Several witnesses have said they saw smoke inside before midnight and the lights went out, followed by an explosion and intense flames that sent patrons fleeing.

Relatives of the victims and those who survived the fire visited the blackened bar on Tuesday, some laying garlands and praying for the dead.

Usa Tadsri, 40, made it out alive, but two friends who were with her died.

Namtip Tubsook and her husband Suwitcha Sirililung left behind two children, aged four and five, who are now being cared for by their grandmother, Nid.

"We were only looking to enjoy ourselves, but we ended up trapped in a disaster," Usa told reporters.

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© Agence France-Presse