SEOUL: At least 31 people were killed in a blaze at a hospital in South Korea on Friday (Jan 26), authorities said, with more than 70 injured and eight of those injured listed as being in critical condition. Firefighters try to put out a fire at a hospital building engulfed by heavy grey smoke in Miryang on Jan 26, 2018. (Photo: AFP/Yonhap) Video footage and pictures showed a helicopter flying above the building in Miryang, engulfed by heavy grey smoke and surrounded by multiple fire trucks. The fire started at around 7.30am (6.30am Singapore time) at the rear of the emergency room on the first floor of Sejong Hospital and it was mostly extinguished after a few hours, Choi Man-woo, the head of Miryang city’s fire station, told a televised media briefing. Miryang is about 270km southeast of the capital, Seoul. All the patients had been evacuated from the hospital and a nursing home in the same building, Choi added. “The victims came both from the hospital and the nursing home. Some died on their way to another hospital.” Most of those who died were on the first and second floors of the hospital, he said. Choi added that there were no deaths from burns and that officials were investigating the reason for the blaze. Around 200 people were in the Sejong Hospital building when the fire broke out, police said. The presidential Blue House in Seoul said in a mobile message that President Moon Jae-in had called an emergency meeting of… [Read full story]
South Korea tops sources of FDI (21-08-2007) Workers at the Hanel Electronics Co Ltd, a joint venture between the Ha Noi Electronics Company and South Korea's Daewoo Electronics Group, assemble TV components. South Korea is now the biggest foreign investor in Viet Nam. — VNS Photo Truong Vi HCM CITY — South Korea has become the biggest foreign investor in Viet Nam, over- taking Singapore in early August. According to the latest figures from the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (Kotra), the total foreign direct investment (FDI) from South Korea to Viet Nam has reached US$10.33 billion, overtaking Singapore's total investment…... [read more]
A huge fire tore through a South Korean hospital Friday killing at least 41 people, the government said, in the country's worst blaze for 15 years. Heavy grey smoke rises into the air from a fire at a hospital building in Miryang, South Korea More than 80 others were hurt in the fire, which comes just weeks before thousands of athletes and foreign visitors are expected in the country for the Winter Olympics. Videos posted on social media showed a patient hanging on to a rope dangling from a helicopter above the hospital in Miryang, in the far south, and…... [read more]
At least 13 people have died after a fishing boat collided with a 336-tonne tanker and capsized off South Korea's west coast.Two others were missing, South Korea's coast guard said, as a search and rescue operation continued.The chartered fishing boat, the Seonchang-1, had been carrying 20 passengers and two crew during a fishing tour at the time of the crash.Footage from the scene showed the upturned boat being searched by divers.Navy helicopters and dozens of ships were taking part in the search southwest of Incheon, near Yeongheung island.Seven people were taken to hospital for treatment. The captain of the 10-tonne…... [read more]
South Korean hospice for elderly, infirm patients killed 21 people Wednesday -- the latest in a series of deadly accidents following last month's ferry disaster that claimed the lives of around 250 schoolchildren. Seven people were injured in the blaze, which broke out shortly after midnight at the hospice in southern Jangseong county which housed close to 80 chronically ill, largely bedridden patients, including stroke victims and advanced Alzheimer's sufferers. Although the fire was brought under control within 30 minutes, many on the upper floor of the two-storey building were unable to evacuate as the rooms filled thick, acrid smoke.…... [read more]
South Korea on Saturday said it was closely monitoring a hospital in eastern Seoul over fears that hundreds of people there may have been exposed to the deadly MERS virus. Medical workers at a separated clinic center for MERS at Konkuk University Hospital in Seoul on June 24, 2015 (AFP Photo/Jung Yeon-Je) A 70-year-old woman who caught Middle East Respiratory Syndrome while visiting an infected relative in a different hospital was feared to have spread the virus to the new site. "We are focusing our efforts in tracing contacts and isolating people who came close to this patient", a senior…... [read more]
