At least 38 people were killed and 10 others injured, eight of them in serious condition, in a fire that broke out yesterday in a warehouse under construction in South Korea.
The South Korean Yonhap news agency quoted the firefighting teams saying that the fire broke out in a four-story under construction warehouse in Icheon city, 80 kilometers southeast of Seoul, and spread "very quickly", which prevented the evacuation of a number of workers who were still inside.
Su Seung-hyun, the commander of the Icheon firefighting teams, said the fire appeared to have broken out due to the explosion of a flammable chemical substance used in construction, stressing that investigations were under way to clarify the circumstances of the blaze.
Yonhap quoted eyewitnesses as having heard no fewer than 10 explosions.
On his part, South Korean President Moon Jae-in has called on officials to mobilize “all available resources” for search and rescue operations for the workers who are still stuck inside the building.
According to his spokesperson, the president of South Korea has ordered officials to look into why enhanced fire safety measures did not work.
Moon made the remarks while presiding over an emergency meeting with his chief of staff and other senior secretaries at Cheong Wa Dae's crisis management center to discuss Wednesday's warehouse fire in Icheon.
"Fire safety measures have been strengthened since my administration came into office, and we need to look into why they didn't work at the scene," Moon was quoted as saying by presidential spokesman Kang Min-seok.
"We need to seek watertight fire safety measures and ways to implement them to make sure this kind of incident won't happen again," Moon said during the meeting at the crisis management center, also known as the "Cheong Wa Dae bunker."
Moon held a similar crisis meeting on Wednesday night.
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