Thailand probes Bangkok bar fire that killed 28

Investigators combed on Monday through the wreckage of a huge fire at a Bangkok bar that killed at least 28 people, as relatives began the grim task of identifying the dead. More than 70 people were injured following the blaze on Sunday evening on the outskirts of the Thai capital, officials said, the country's worst such incident for almost two decades. Flames ripped through the Rong Beer Na Lat Phrao bar and restaurant and burst out of the entrance, sending people fleeing, several with their clothing burned or ablaze.

"Everybody was running, squeezing into each other," recalled Athipat "Ice" Wijarn, whose band Tosakan was on stage when the fire broke out around 11 p.m. Sunday (local time).

The lights went out and he noticed smoke come from the circuit board behind them, he told Thai talk show Hone-Krasae. As he crawled towards the exit, he said, "there was an explosion, and I got hit at the back of my head." The keyboardist, Kwang, and the band's singer, Breeze, both died.

Kaew-udon Poungppany fought back tears as he described his desperate attempts to reach his younger brother, Phonepase