TOKYO — A pre-dawn fire Monday raged through the top two floors of a major Tokyo hotel where a group of South Korean conventioneers were staying, killing at least 24 people and injuring more than 33, fire officials said.

At least 11 of the injured were South Koreans. It was not immediately known, however, if any South Koreans were killed or if any Americans or other foreigners were among the casualties. Some Americans were registered in the hotel, said officials

An American woman, identified by U.S. military sources as Sharon Poff, wife of an Air Force officer in Okinawa, was treated at a hospital for burns and was released. She was in Tokyo for a convention and was in a ninth floor room of the hotel, fire officials said.

Another American, identified as Mal Kravit, 33, of California, also was among those listed as injured, but his condition was not given.

Police said most of the dead died of asphyxiation, but that at least three guests jumped or fell from windows on the top two floors of the 10-story Hotel New Japan, in Tokyo's busy Akasaka nightlife district.

The hotel is within a quarter-mile of the Sanno Joint Services Transient Billeting Facility, a Navy-operated hotel where servicemen and women, dependents and DoD civilians often stay while in Tokyo.

The injured were taken to 16 hospitals. Five died after being received in the emergency rooms, firefighters said.

Among those who escaped were a couple who had been married in the hotel Sunday and planned to leave Monday morning for a honeymoon on the Pacific Ocean Island of Saipan.

"My wife noticed smoke and knew this was a fire," said Hirofumi Tanaka, 30, the bridegroom. "It was a surprise. We quickly changed clothes and left by an emergency staircase. The emergency bell didn't ring. I thought we were going to die."

The fire broke out in a ninth-floor guest's room about 3:25 a.m., fire officials said.

A hotel official said there were 316 guests registered in the 92-room building.

The Associated Press quoted fire officials as saying the hotel had been ordered last October to install a sprinkler system, but that the work had been finished only on the first and second floors.

The president of the hotel, Hideki Yokoi, said the hotel began installing a sprinkler system two years ago but the work was not completed because the hotel was losing money. He said sprinklers were to have been installed in all rooms within a year.

An American guest who escaped the fire told AP that he heard no alarms. He said the only warning was a flashing red light in his room, but that thick black smoke made the light barely visible.

Donald Ross McGhee, a tourist from Melbourne, Australia, said he saw one person dangling from a sheet on the ninth floor. Finally the flames got to the guest, McGhee said, and he dropped to the ground.

McGhee said he knocked on doors to arouse others. "It was extremely hard to breathe and the situation was near panic," he said. "People were falling down the stairs of the fire escape."

"I was awakened at 3:30 a.m. lay the sound of crying," said Hans Trippler, a businessman from West Germany.

"I looked out of my window and saw flames from the floor above me. I saw people jumping from the ninth floor. They jumped out of the window, and they went sailing past my window, and then I heard a loud crash."

Yasuhiro Isogai told Pacific Stars and Stripes he spotted the fire when he arrived at his pharmacy. He said firefighters were already on the scene, but that he could hear the screams of men and women trapped in the fire.

Masao Haga, 46, of Okinawa, said he was awakened by a commotion and thought it was drunks or troublemakers fighting in the hallway. When he realized the hotel was on fire, he jumped from his fourth-floor window, injuring a leg.

A Japanese couple broke a window of their ninth-floor room, tied bedsheets together and climbed down them to the seventh floor, where they were rescued by firemen, officials said.

Guests said they received no warnings and were awakened by intense heat and thick smoke.

The fire was still burning through the top two floors at 8 a.m., with thick black smoke pouring from windows well into late morning.

The Associated Press and United Press International contributed to this report.

Migrated