BANGKOK, Thailand (EPN) -- Cambodia and Thailand suffered financial, military and tourism problems on Thursday (Jan. 30) after rioters set ablaze Thailand's embassy and other property in the Cambodian capital, killing one person.

The fabled, Angkor Wat complex -- symbolic of Cambodia's power between the ninth and 15th centuries -- became a bizarre rallying cry for anti-Thai mobs who mistakenly feared the gigantic Buddhist temple was coveted by Thailand.

The riot in Phnom Penh damaged diplomatic ties, security cooperation, investment and race relations in both nations, destabilizing the heart of Southeast Asia.

The anti-Thai riot was also costly and highly personal for billionaire Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra because his family owns much of the telecommunications equipment and TV broadcast facilities charred and looted during Wednesday's (Jan. 29) unrest.

"This is the worst thing that could have happened for any diplomatic ties in the world community," Mr. Thaksin said, condemning the "barbaric" riot.

"Until the Cambodian government explains to us what happened, arrests those involved in the violence and pays us for the damage done, we cannot have normal relations with Cambodia.

"We have stopped all activities with Cambodia. No Cambodian will be allowed to come to Thailand and we will bring all Thai people out from Cambodia," Mr. Thaksin said.

"I had to climb over the embassy fence to escape Cambodian mobs," the Thai ambassador to Cambodia, Chatchawed Chatsuwan, said.

"[Cambodian] police sent to the embassy did nothing to provide protection for us," the ambassador told The Nation newspaper.

Hundreds of rampaging Cambodians also attacked Thai-owned hotels, restaurants, airline offices and a cellular phone company in Phnom Penh.

Thai officials estimated the mobs caused millions of dollars of damage to the embassy and Thai businesses.

Angkor Wat itself suffered no immediate threat, but international access to the temple -- one of Southeast Asia's biggest attractions -- was hampered by cancelled flights from Thailand and a hurriedly sealed border.

Angkor Wat's massive, high-walled stone complex of towers, shrines and frescoes are located in Siem Reap town, 140 miles northwest of Phnom Penh.

Though the jungle-clad complex is reachable from Phnom Penh by air, road and boat, many tourists travel to the temple directly from Bangkok.

Foreign tourists visiting Southeast Asia, however, were reconsidering their plans for a jaunt from Bangkok to Angkor Wat, after receiving news of the violence.

Angkor Wat's larger-than-life stone depictions of kings and mythical figures are hailed by Cambodian leaders as evidence of their nation's civilization.

Pictures of Angkor Wat's five pointy towers -- completed in the 12th century -- adorn Cambodia's flag, currency, commercial products and other items.

Some Cambodians, however, still rue the day 500 years ago when Siamese people from present-day Thailand fought against the mighty Angkor Wat empire and reduced Cambodia's power and territory.

The immediate impact of the riot was expected to create havoc to Cambodia's fragile, skeletal economy and Phnom Penh stood to lose the most from the seemingly self-inflicted disaster.

Thailand provides many of the goods and services in Cambodia, including food, machinery, spare parts, major investment and speedy access to international markets.

"We apologize and regret what happened to Thailand and her people," said Cambodian government spokesman Khieu Kanharith.

International investors were watching to see if other foreign property would remain safe in Cambodia, where bloodshed and crime often goes unpunished due to corruption.

Impoverished Cambodia is bordered on three sides by disparate neighbors: wealthy Thailand, bankrupt Laos and communist Vietnam.

Cambodia's south coast opens to the Gulf of Thailand and the country maintains relatively good relations with China, Malaysia, the United States and other countries.

Washington's biggest concern in Phnom Penh has traditionally been security and tackling Cambodia's anarchic blackmarket of weapons, drugs, human trafficking and other crime.

In a dramatic evacuation on Thursday (Jan. 30), more than 500 terrified Thai men, women and children scurried into Thai air force C-130 planes for emergency flights to Bangkok, fearing future racial abuse.

A handful of Thais who suffered burns and other injuries in the riot were treated upon arrival in Bangkok.

Cambodian security forces eventually controlled Phnom Penh with armored personnel carriers backed by steel-helmeted troops armed with assault rifles.

Thai troops in Bangkok, meanwhile, guarded Cambodia's embassy against hundreds of Thai demonstrators who shouted nationalistic slogans in the tropical winter heat.

The core of the riot involved allegations that a Thai actress claimed Angkor Wat belonged to Thailand.

The actress, Suwanan Kongying, tearfully denied the accusation amid confusion over whether she played a character whose dialogue may have touched on the subject in a TV drama two years ago.

The Cambodian government had banned Thai programs from appearing on Cambodian TV earlier this week when allegations against the actress began to spread.

Both nations have majority Buddhist populations and were enjoying relatively good relations until the riot on Wednesday (Jan. 29).

Cambodia police opened fire but did not do enough to squelch the mob during the hours leading up to the embassy assault, Thai officials said.

In the first half of the 20th century, Thailand served as a neutral "buffer" between British-ruled Burma and French-controlled Cambodia.

After Cambodia gained independence, quarrels arose over demarcation of their border and territorial claims dating back hundreds of years.

Recent tension between Cambodia and Thailand included theft of Cambodian antiquities from Angkor Wat and other temples, cross-border drug trafficking, and syndicates which steal vehicles in Thailand and sell them in Cambodia.

The riots, however, means Cambodia wasted much of the money it spent hosting an Association of Southeast Asian Nations Tourism Forum on Jan. 20 to 28, during which Cambodia's Tourism Minister, Veng Sereyvuth, boasted to a reporter, "Now we have political stability and peace.

"Our image has shifted from focusing on the Khmer Rouge and violence, to being a heavenly tourist destination," Mr. Sereyvuth added.

He was referring to 1975-79 bloodshed under Pol Pot's "killing fields" regime which resulted in the deaths of more than one million Cambodians.

Pol Pot rose to power after Cambodia was devastated by lengthy U.S. bombardment during the Vietnam War.

After Pol Pot fell, Vietnam invaded and occupied Cambodia for 10 years to 1989.

Today, still reeling from the traumas and destruction of those decades, many Cambodians loathe their country's pauper status, where cheap labor and natural resources are exploited by Thais and other foreign entrepreneurs.