Bangkok, Apr 1 (IANS): At least five people were killed and hundreds injured in a hotel fire in Thailand's Songkhla province, the Bangkok Post online reported.
The fire, which broke out at a five star hotel in Hat Yai, was caused by an explosion in the gas pipeline system, not by a bomb as some earlier media reports described, Xinhua quoted Songkhla Governor Grisada as saying Saturday.
The victims included four men and one woman and over 300 guests were trapped by fire and smoke in their upper floor rooms. Twenty-eight of them were hospitalised, he told reporters.
Pat Yai is a major tourist and commercial city in Thailand near the Malaysian border.