Five people died in an apartment block fire on Tuesday when riot police in the South Korean capital broke up a sit-in by protesting residents, media reports and firefighters said.
Five people died in an apartment block fire on Tuesday when riot police in the South Korean capital broke up a sit-in by protesting residents, media reports and firefighters said.
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Firefighters said they found the bodies in the five-storey building in the Yongsan district of Seoul, where some 40 people had been staging a protest since yesterday against a redevelopment project.
"Five bodies, some seriously burnt, were found on the scene. We handed the bodies over to police," one firefighter said, declining to be identified. Yonhap news agency also said five were killed.
The cause of the blaze was not known but TV pictures earlier showed residents throwing firebombs at police from the roof of the block.
Some 1,400 helmeted riot police were mobilised to end the protest, media reports said, and 25 people were arrested.
An AFP photographer at the scene said the blaze had been extinguished but smoke was still rising from the scorched building, where most windows were shattered.
He said a tower erected by residents on the rooftop had collapsed after being burnt down. A police forensic team was searching through debris inside the building.
Witnesses said there had been more than 30 people inside the building before the fire broke out. Police could not immediately give casualty figures.
Kim Eun-Taek, a spokesman for the nearby Chung-Ang University Yongsan Hospital, said four policemen and three residents had been admitted there for emergency treatment. Yonhap news agency said dozens had been injured.
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