Firefighters arrived at the scene in the Chatuchak district to find patrons running through flames to escape.

A huge fire tore through a bar in Bangkok late on Sunday, killing at least 27 people and leaving 22 critically injured. The blaze started near the stage of the bar in the popular Chatuchak district, then spread rapidly, cutting power and engulfing the room with smoke, eyewitnesses say. Footage posted online show panicked customers screaming as they fled – some with their clothes on fire – through the flame-enveloped front door of Rong Beer Na Lat Phrao. Firefighters, who arrived at the scene just after midnight, quickly extinguished the fire. They found the bodies of most of the victims in a bathroom, where they had apparently sought shelter. Preliminary investigations by Bangkok's disaster mitigation department suggest the fire could have been caused by an electrical short circuit in an air conditioner, though no official cause has been given. Despite official promises to improve fire and electrical safety standards following previous incidents, they are still often poorly enforced. Footage from outside the venue shows the fire blasting out of the front door as people run through the flames to escape Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who visited the scene early on Monday, said a musician who was performing when the fire broke out told him "there was blasting and everybody tried to flee from the smoke and flames".