Latest news 22 dead in factory fire in South Korea

At least 22 people have died in a major fire at a battery factory in South Korea. Eight workers were also injured, the fire department announced on Monday. By the evening (local time), another person was reported missing.

According to the report, 20 of the victims were of foreign origin. Of these, 18 were Chinese guest workers and one person was from Laos. The identity of another migrant worker was initially unknown. Most of the victims were trapped by the fire.

The fire broke out in the morning in a factory for lithium batteries owned by the company Aricell in the city of Hwaseong, around 45 kilometers south of Seoul. South Korean television footage showed a series of small explosions. Flames and thick clouds of smoke poured out of the burning multi-storey building before the fire was brought under control after several hours. It was difficult for the fire department to extinguish the burning lithium batteries, according to the reports.

According to the authorities, the fire could have been caused by the explosion of a battery cell. The tip-off had come from a worker who had gotten to safety in time, said Kim Jin Young, head of the disaster prevention department at the Hwaseong police station, on television. Further investigations into the cause of the accident are still necessary. There were probably 102 people in the building at the time of the accident. Most of the victims were found on the second floor of the factory.

According to reports from the national news agency Yonhap, it was one of the most devastating accidents in a chemical plant in South Korea. In 1989, 16 people were killed in one of the largest explosions at a chemical plant in the southern city of Yeosu. Eight people died in Cheongju in 2012 when a chemical solvent exploded in a plant owned by LG Chem.