(AFP) – Jan 2, 2009

BANGKOK (AFP) — Mourning relatives and shocked survivors on Friday offered prayers and recalled the horror of a New Year fire at a packed Bangkok club, as police tried to piece together how 61 people died.

Harrowing accounts emerged of the scenes of panic and fear inside the Santika nightclub in the Thai capital's popular Ekkamai district, where more than 200 people were also injured in the blaze just early Thursday.

Mourners -- some with victims' coffins in the back of trucks -- trickled to the club to pray and to give offerings to the dead, while scores of people, some of them foreigners, remained in hospital after the tragic night.

"The place was crowded and the incident was caused by reckless people," interior minister Chavarat Charnvirakul told reporters.

"We do not know yet whose wrongdoing caused the accident -- police are still investigating."

Thanawut Santhong, who lost three friends, told the Bangkok Post newspaper that each guest was given a sparkler to light during the countdown to 2009, but suddenly smoke engulfed the club and all the lights went out.

"People were in panic after the blackout," he said. "The situation became worse as people screamed 'fire' and tried to escape."

He recalled party-goers crying, screaming, pushing and stepping on top of one another as they struggled to steer a way through the few doors out of the club, while flames rained down on people's hair and clothes from the ceiling.

Local resident Tenawat Komolripart told AFP: "I saw people trying to get out of the nightclub. Some were burned on about 10 percent of their bodies. They sat down and tried calling their friends."

Early reports by police suggested the inferno might have been caused by a pyrotechnics display on stage soon after the New Year countdown, but officials said they were also investigating the wiring in the club and the sparklers.

Police General Jongrak Jutanont, deputy national police commissioner, said police had since 2004 refused Santika an operational licence because of safety concerns.

The club management had been seeking an injunction from the administrative court, and was allowed to remain open while the case progressed.

Jongrak said they were still waiting for the major shareholder of the club to present himself to police for questioning.

"Initially police will file charges against him for allowing people in who were under 20 years old, because police investigations found people who were 17 inside the Santika on that night," he said.

Emergency services headquarters secretary Chatree Charoencheewakul said the latest death toll was 59, with 86 of the injured still in hospital, 38 of them in intensive care.

A Singaporean national was among those killed and 41 foreigners, including citizens of Australia, France, Japan and Britain, were injured.

Twelve women and four men remain unidentified, a forensic official said, and police have tacked graphic photos of their charred remains at a police station in the hope of finding out their identities.

Outside the gutted club, families of the dead and Buddhist monks gave offerings and said prayers.

People placed incense, flowers, fruit and even a flashlight for the dead on a table in front of the barricaded building.

"I want to express my condolences to the families of the dead and I hope their souls rest in peace," said 22-year-old Achara Porn, whose husband died.

Many of the trapped party-goers died of smoke inhalation, while others were crushed to death in the stampede to get out of the front exit.

There was a back exit as well, but that was known only to staff members.

Fire brigade officials have said the death toll was so high because there were few exits and the windows on the upper floors had iron bars across them. Some victims were also trapped in the basement of the club.

The club, popular with Bangkok's elite, has a capacity of 1,000 people, and witnesses said it was heaving when the fire broke out.

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