A 22-year-old man died while trying to escape a fire at second-hand clothing store Sakura in Chamkarmorn district’s Phsar Deumthkov commune yesterday morning.

Police said the blaze, which swept through the Japanese import business at 4:30am and was attended by 25 fire trucks, was caused by an electrical fault.

Closed circuit TV showed the victim trying to break out of the store’s locked doors but unable to find a key. He died of smoke inhalation and burns.

The worker was a first-year law student at the Royal University of Law and Economics, originally from Leu village in Kandal province and was believed to be sleeping in the store overnight to guard it during the Pchum Ben holiday.

Much of the store’s second-hand clothing and household wares were destroyed in the blaze, Phsar Deumthkov commune policeman Seng Vannak said, though the total damage was yet to be counted.

To contact the reporter on this story: Khoun Leakhana at [email protected]