Seoul, South Korea:

Six people were killed and more than two dozen were injured when a blaze ripped through a hotel construction site in the South Korean port city of Busan on Friday, the National Fire Agency said.

The fire started just before 11:00 am (0200 GMT) at the construction site of the Banyan Tree Hotel, authorities said. Around 100 workers were present when the blaze erupted, a National Fire Agency official told AFP.

Twenty-five people were injured, a public health department official said, adding that most were minor injuries caused by smoke inhalation.

“The fire had already reached its peak by the time we arrived and thick black smoke was covering the scene,” Busan Gijang Fire Station chief Hong Mun-sik told reporters.

“There were many flammable materials blocking the entrance,” Hong said.

The fire broke out on the first floor of the building where workers had stored insulation materials, Hong said, and the fatalities occurred where the fire started.

“The exact cause and location of the fire need to be thoroughly investigated,” Hong said.

The fire was brought under control around 1:30 pm.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Seoul:

A fire at a hotel in South Korea killed six people and injured 11 others, Yonhap news agency reported on Thursday, citing fire authorities.

The fire began on the eighth floor of the nine-story hotel in Bucheon, south of the capital Seoul in the evening, Yonhap said, citing the Gyeonggi Province fire authorities, adding that fire authorities have dispatched 46 fire trucks and 150 firefighters to the scene.

There could be more casualties or injuries as the fire has not been put out, Yonhap reported, citing a fire official.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Firefighters carry a body at the site of a fire at a lithium battery manufacturing factory in Hwaseong, South Korea, Monday, June 24, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

A fire likely sparked by exploding lithium batteries swept through a manufacturing factory near South Korea’s capital on Monday, killing 22 mostly Chinese migrant workers and injuring eight, officials said.

The fire began after batteries exploded as workers were examining and packaging them on the second floor of the factory in Hwaseong city, just south of Seoul, at around 10:30 a.m., fire officials said. They said they would investigate the cause of the blaze.

The dead included 18 Chinese, two South Koreans and one Laotian, local fire official Kim Jin-young told a televised briefing. He said the nationality of one of the dead could not be immediately verified.

In the past few decades, many people from China, including ethnic Koreans, have migrated to South Korea to seek jobs. Like other foreign migrants from Southeast Asian nations, they often end up in factories or in physically demanding and low-paying jobs.

Mr. Kim said that one factory worker remained out of contact and rescuers continued to search the site. He said that two of the eight injured were in serious condition.

The fire started at one of the factory buildings owned by a battery manufacturer, Aricell. Authorities would investigate whether fire extinguishing systems were at the site and if they worked.

Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are ubiquitous in consumer goods from laptops to cellphones. They can overheat if damaged, defective or packaged improperly, leading to fires and explosions and making them a hazard for shipment aboard aircraft.