Three people died and seven others were injured in a hotel fire near Khao San Road in Phra Nakhon District late Sunday night.

Police said the fire broke out at The Ember Hotel on Tanee Road at 9.21pm Sunday.

Witnesses said it started on the fifth floor of the six-storey hotel. Firefighters controlled the flames in about an hour.

Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt said about 40 people were inside the hotel and many of them were evacuated from the rooftop of the building by fire truck ladders.

One foreign woman was found dead in Room 502 on the fifth floor. Two foreign men were seriously injured and died at hospitals later. Officials had yet to identify their nationality.

Seven injured people consisted of two Thai men, a Japanese man, a foreign woman, a German man, a German woman and a Chinese man.

The governor ordered the hotel closed for a safety check.

Police were investigating the cause of the fire.