At least 41 people have died and dozens more are injured after a fire broke out at a hospital in South Korea. South Korea is set to hold the Winter Olympics from February 9 to 25.
The six-storey structure housed a nursing home as well as the hospital, and the National Fire Agency said 41 people had been killed, with 13 critically injured.]
Video footage and pictures showed the building engulfed by heavy dark smoke and surrounded by multiple fire trucks.
A National Fire Agency spokesman said the death toll could rise further. It is the second devastating blaze in just a month in the advanced country, Asia’s fourth-largest economy.
In South Korea, a country with one of the world’s fastest-aging populations, the lack of safety measures at its growing number of nursing homes has become a major issue in recent years.
Sejong Hospital also has a nursing home for the elderly, and there were 194 people in the building when the fire broke out, according to police.Fire officials said more than 70 people were injured, a number of them seriously.
Most of those who died were on the first and second floors of the six-storey building, and none died of burns.In a press conference, Man-Wu said: “About 90 patients at the care hospital cannot move by themselves.
South Korean President Moon Jae-In called an emergency meeting with advisers, and demanded an immediate probe into the cause of the blaze.
