Cambodia casino fire: Video of the harrowing moment people are forced to jump for their lives from a burning hotel complex

Warning: Concerning Content.

At least 19 people, many of them Thai, were killed and up to 30 are missing after a fire destroyed a casino-hotel complex in a Cambodian town on the Thai border.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: The harrowing moment people are forced to jump out of the burning building.

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About 400 employees and guests were at the Grand Diamond City Casino and Hotel in the town of Poipet when the fire broke out around midnight, leaving the building charred and burned out Thursday afternoon.

Cambodian police said hundreds of military, police and rescue volunteers joined the rescue effort, which was suspended as night fell due to the risk the building could collapse.

Banteay Meanchey provincial intelligence chief Sek Sokhom said the death toll could top 20, with 60 injured.

Many of the victims were Thai nationals, rescue workers said.

“(The deceased) we found are Thai, as shown by their IDs. The bodies must now be identified,” said rescue worker Somboon Kwanoum, 53.

The Cambodian government set up a committee to investigate the cause of the fire, which remained unclear.

Casinos in the capital Phnom Penh and on the borders with Vietnam and Thailand are an important part of Cambodia’s tourism industry and a draw for visitors from Asian countries that ban gambling.

Those in Poipet are very popular with short-term Thai visitors as gambling is illegal across the border and unlicensed casinos operate underground there.

Video footage showed the fire under control through Thursday afternoon and a crew in a stairwell of the building’s fire escape donning respirators and fireproof hoods before entering a smoke-filled corridor.

Punnawat Promsri, 40, said her Thai relative died trying to help two women escape the fire.

“Max stayed behind to help a woman and a pregnant woman escape,” she told Reuters.

“I saw from a video clip I think it was him. He was holding on to a rope attached to a fire pit and it broke. He did not die of fire or smoke.”

According to Reuters witnesses and footage aired on local news, crowds had gathered nearby throughout the day and ambulances were rushing to and from the scene as bodies were pulled from the building’s smoldering ruins.

Dozens were treated in hospitals in Sa Kaeo province, across the border, where provincial Thai authorities said a Thai national died in hospital and 70 percent of those affected showed symptoms of smoke inhalation.