Disasters & Accidents

7 dead in South Korean shopping center fire

Seoul, Sep 26 (EFE).- Seven people died while one suffered critical injuries in a massive fire Monday that engulfed a shopping center in the South Korean city of Daejeon, said officials.

Two of those dead, a man of around 50 years and another man aged around 30, were initially rescued by the emergency teams but succumbed to their injuries at a hospital.

Five other people, all of them workers at the center, were found dead after firefighters managed to control the flames.

Another man, in his 40s, has been hospitalized with very serious burns, according to the city’s fire department cited by the Yonhap agency.

The fire started around 7.45 am local time before business hours at Hyundai Premium Outlet in an underground parking and the flames spread rapidly due to the large number of cardboard boxes in the warehouses and loading dock.

More than 100 firefighters took a little over seven hours to bring the fire under control in Daejeon, 160km south of Seoul.

No customers were present at the time of the fire since it occurred before business hours.

However, due to the magnitude of the fire, about 100 people and employees of nearby hotels were evacuated.

Authorities have begun investigations and were looking at various possible causes, including the explosion of an electric car getting charged in an underground parking garage. EFE

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