An electrical short is believed to have triggered the massive fire that destroyed the Summit Footwear shoe factory in central Thailand on Tuesday night.
At around 5.30pm, as hundreds of workers were finishing their shifts, a fire broke out in the factory that produces Aerosoft footwear.
The fire is believed to have started on the ground floor of the six-story building and dozens of fire engines were dispatched to fight it. As firefighters battled the raging flames that tore through the building, police closed off the side street.
Large cracks were visible in the walls of the burnt structure. The initial estimate of the damage was 20 million Thai baht. No hazardous chemicals were burned and authorities attributed the fire to an electrical short, the industry ministry said.
Firefighters were still dousing the roaring flames in the ruins of the Summit Footwear factory when police continued to shut down the Bang Na-Trat Highway bypass on Wednesday morning. The side road leading was jammed with traffic for miles due to road closures.
In two districts of Pattani, in southern Thailand, two petrol stations were damaged by bombs on Tuesday night; one employee was injured. According to police, a bomb exploded at a PTT station on Pattani Highway 42 at 20:05. A gas station employee was injured and was taken to the hospital. The Pattani Bus Terminal is near the petrol station.
According to eyewitnesses, two men arrived on a motorcycle and detonated a bomb at the PTT station. Then, before detonating the bomb, one of them fired a gun into the air and yelled at the crowd to run. The second bomb exploded in Tambon Piya Mumang in Yaring District of Pattani, Thailand at a PT gas station on Highway 42.