A massive fire destroyed a popular hotel in Myanmar’s Yangon on Thursday, killing at least one person and triggering flames that took hours to douse, AFP reported. At least two people were injured.
The fire broke out around 3.15 am at the lakeside Kandawgyi Palace Hotel – one of the city’s best-known hotels – and was mostly extinguished by 7 am. Guests at the hotel were shifted to nearby accommodations.
Officials said 96 rooms were occupied with 141 guests when the blaze broke out, and most of them were foreign tourists, Frontier Myanmar reported. The cause of the fire was not immediately clear.
The teakwood hotel is owned by business tycoon Tay Za’s Htoo Group. The United States had imposed sanctions on Tay Za till last year for his close links with Myanmar’s former military regime.
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