[CesseOveldset]

PHUKET - A fire broke out early Friday at a nightclub popular with foreign tourists on the Thai resort island of Phuket, leaving four people dead and about a dozen injured, officials said.

"There are four confirmed dead. We believe they are foreign tourists but it's not yet confirmed," Phuket deputy governor Chamroen Tipayapongtada told AFP by telephone.

"The fire was caused by lightning which struck a transformer and the fire spread throughout the place," he added.

The blaze broke out at about 4am at the Tiger disco in the town of Patong, a magnet for foreign tourists on the southern island. After about one hour, firefighters managed to put the fire under control.

A second provincial official said 12 people were admitted to Patong hospital with injuries.

Rescue workers had retrieved the four bodies and sent them for autopsy, he said.

Police were investigating.

[CesseOveldset]

A fire ripped through a nightclub popular with foreign tourists in Thailand early Friday, leaving at least four people dead and more than 20 others injured, officials said.

Hospital workers said foreigners were among the casualties in the blaze at the Tiger disco on the island of Phuket, where rescue workers pulled the charred bodies of victims out of the smoldering wreckage.

"There are four confirmed dead. We believe they are foreign tourists but it's not yet confirmed," Phuket deputy governor Chamroen Tipayapongtada told AFP by telephone.

"The fire was caused by lightning which struck a transformer and the fire spread throughout the place," he added.

Hospital workers in the seaside resort of Patong said the injured included both Thais and foreigners.

"We received more than 20 people who sustained injuries from the Tiger Pub fire. Most are suffering from suffocation," one hospital worker said.

"Two are in critical condition from severe burns. One of them is a French man who suffered burns on his torso," she added. "The four dead bodies were burnt beyond recognition. We cannot identify even their gender."

Police kept back a crowd of onlookers as ambulances arrived to collect the casualties, according to local media.

"It's totally destroyed on the second floor where the fire broke out," said a provincial official at the scene.

Concerns about fire safety at Thai nightclubs were highlighted by a massive blaze at a disco in the capital Bangkok in 2009 that left more than 60 people dead, including foreigners, as people celebrated the New Year.

In that incident hundreds of party-goers were inside the Santika Club when it was set ablaze by pyrotechnics during a performance by a rock band

Three Singaporeans, one Japanese and a Myanmar national were among the dead, while scores of foreigners including some from Australia, France and Britain were injured.

Last year the owner was convicted of gross negligence and sentenced to three years in prison.

Thailand is a tourist magnet but its image as the "Land of Smiles" has been tested in recent years by deadly political unrest, devastating floods and concerns about violent crimes against foreigners.

In June an Australian woman was stabbed to death during an attempted robbery in Phuket, while two Canadian sisters were found dead in a hotel room on nearby Phi Phi island, showing signs of an extreme toxic reaction.

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The Tiger Discotheque in Phuket, which was gutted in a fire that killed four people last week, has been declared off-limits, while an independent group of architects has recommended demolishing the structure's second floor and a deck.

It will be known in a few days if Tiger Discotheque was operating illegally after hours, provincial Governor Tree Akkharadecha said yesterday.

The municipality yesterday restricted entry into the building that houses the pub, while the Association of Siamese Architects under the Royal Patronage of His Majesty the King said the heavily damage deck and the entire the second floor should be taken down.

The provincial police chief and his deputy would be "invited" to clarify the operating hours, why two exits could not be used during the fire, and whether the venue was open beyond the legal limit of 2am.

Highly flammable polystyrene had been used to make decorative items in the venue, possibly in violation of the law, said Bundit Pradabsuk, the head of the association. After the Santika Pub fire in Bangkok - which killed many people on New Year's eve in 2009 - polystyrene had been banned, he added.

Bundit did not give the legal timeframe for owners of venues to change from polystyrene to other substances.

He said there were eight fire exits at Tiger Discotheque, while the law only required six.

A lawyer representing the venue said the fire exits caught fire, preventing patrons from using them and forcing them to flee through the front gate.

The Provincial Electricity Authority has already dismissed an electrical short circuit as the cause, as cited by the lawyer.

An inspection of fire safety features and all entertainment venues in Phuket is underway to find any violations, the governor said.