15 die as fire rips through karaoke bar

AN arsonist believed to be linked to a triad turf war firebombed a karaoke bar in Tsim Sha Tsui yesterday, police say, killing 15 people in the second horrific blaze in two months.

The inferno which exploded in a staircase leading to the Top One karaoke bar at 4 am, was apparently designed to trap about 100 people inside, detectives said.

Flames and smoke roared quickly up the stairs and through air-conditioning vents into the maze of tiny rooms, quickly overcoming staff and customers.

Triad involvement in the attack, which took the lives of young people aged between 16 and 42, and injured another 15, was being investigated.

A 24-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl were in critical condition last night.

A witness was claimed to have seen a petrol bomb being hurled at the building while others said there had been a brawl between two gangs outside the bar shortly before the fire started.

A 38-year-old manager of the bar was arrested by Organised Crime and Triad Bureau detectives over an assault there earlier this week which could be connected to the arson, police said.

Early in the day police found water pipes, choppers and knives inside the club. Last night they discovered another cache of 30 water pipes and four choppers in a staircase in the same building, but not inside the club.

The dead were found lying along corridors and in the small cubicles rented by customers who were celebrating birthdays and the end of the working week.

Many of the customers were unable to escape because they were intoxicated and 'slow in their responses', Aaron Cheung Yin-chiu, the fire officer in charge of the operation, said.

'Many of them did not even notice a fire was going on.' About 75 customers and 25 staff were inside the four-level bar with 62 small 'VIP' rooms at the time of the fire.

It was extinguished at 5.22 am.

Representatives of the Top One karaoke bar chain said they had not had any problems with organised crime or extortion at the Prat Avenue bar.

But there were the usual fights among drunken customers and disputes between demanding patrons and staff, deputy general manager Chan Yuk-mai said.

Staff at the Top One karaoke club banged on cubicle doors and made announcements to help customers escape, management said.

Some survivors said they had heard no alarm.

Firefighters with ladders plucked men and women from a rooftop on the fourth level as smoke and flames engulfed the lower levels of the building.

Rescuers wearing oxygen masks carried the unconscious over their shoulders from a side exit.

The arson attack came as the territory was recovering from the Garley Building inferno which claimed 40 lives just a few blocks away in Nathan Road.

'This is another dreadful accident,' said Governor Chris Patten at the scene.

'I'd like to offer my condolences to the families of the young victims. Their suffering today is, for all of us who are parents, I am sure almost literally unimaginable.' Reports, pictures - Page 3; Editorial - Page 12