SEOUL - Five people were killed and dozens injured after a bus and truck crash caused a huge fire in an expressway tunnel on the outskirts of Seoul on Thursday, the local fire department said.
Images of the scene in local media showed huge flames and plumes of smoke rising from the tunnel, as hundreds of firefighters battled to bring the blaze under control.
The fire started when a bus collided with a truck at around 1.50pm local time in the expressway tunnel in Gwacheon, a fire department official said.
The raised tunnel, which is designed to protect surrounding buildings from the noise of the road, was quickly engulfed in flames, media images showed.
Firefighters have brought the blaze under control, the official said.
“We are doing a search inside the tunnel in case of additional casualties,” the Gwacheon fire official added.
After initially saying that six people had been killed, the authorities revised down the death toll to five, with 37 people injured.
Some of the injured have suffered from burns, the official said.
“Three suffered burns on facial areas while the rest are being treated for smoke inhalation,” he said.
The heavy traffic made it difficult for vehicles to escape the affected area as the fire spread, a witness told television broadcaster YTN. Altogether, 44 vehicles were destroyed in the fire.
Interior Minister Lee Sang-min called for “maximum resources deployed” to save lives, the Yonhap News Agency reported.
“I urge the authorities to put out the best efforts to save the lives of those who have not escaped,” he said.
President Yoon Suk-yeol also ordered an all-out inspection of road structures such as sound barriers to check whether the materials used are fire-prone, in a move to prevent other such fires, according to a presidential office spokesman.
The fatal accident comes just months after 150 people, mostly young women, were killed in a Halloween crowd crush in the Itaewon nightlife district.
South Korea’s rapid transformation from a war-torn, impoverished backwater to Asia’s fourth-largest economy and a flourishing democracy is a source of great national pride.
But a series of preventable disasters – including Itaewon and the Sewol ferry sinking which killed more than 300 people in 2014 – has shaken public confidence.
Many South Koreans have questioned whether safety standards were sidelined and regulations ignored in the rush for development, with the long toll of accidents leaving a legacy of bitterness and mistrust. AFP, REUTERS, THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
