12 Chinese among dead in warehouse fire

TWELVE Chinese citizens were confirmed dead among the 40 people killed in a warehouse fire south of Seoul yesterday, the Chinese Embassy in South Korea said. Another Chinese was seriously injured.

The embassy said the dead and injured Chinese were ethnically Korean and temporary workers at the burned warehouse, Xinmin Evening Newspaper reported today.

The unidentified injured Chinese was confirmed as a 45-year-old woman, said the report.

The identities of the other Chinese victims were also unclear as their bodies were badly burned in the fire.

DNA tests will be carried out to identify the victims.

The direct property loss will be more than US$600,000, the Xinmin report said, citing an estimate by the fire department.

Fifty seven workers were working in the basement of a warehouse under construction when a bottle of flammable liquid stored in the room was ignited, causing three explosions.

Seventeen workers escaped, 10 of whom were seriously injured and sent to hospital.

The fire began last night in a warehouse in Icheon, about 80 kilometers southeast of Seoul. It was extinguished after more than five hours.

A similar accident happened in Pusan when 27 workers were killed and 16 were seriously injured in a fire in 1998, the report added.