Seoul - A fire in an eight-storey fitness
centre in the scenic South Korean city of Jecheon on Thursday
killed at least 29 people, most of them as they were taking a
sauna, officials said.
The blaze began in a car parked on the first floor and
spread, one official told Reuters. The local fire station said
at least 12 women and three men were known to have died.
Thirteen bodies were unrecognisable.
The fire station official said most of the victims were
found in the sauna, and the main cause of the death was
suffocation rather than burns.
The casualty toll was likely to rise as efforts to find
victims remained in progress, fire station officials said.
Heavy smoke charred glass facades of the building as
firefighters struggled to extinguish the blaze, some climbing up
and down a ladder in desperate search of survivors.
Local news channel YTN said President Moon Jae-in voiced
deep sorrow for so many deaths while Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon
vowed to expedite rescue efforts to try to minimise the number
of dead and injured.
Jecheon is southeast of the capital Seoul and is popular
with visitors to its mountains and lakes.