5 dead, 38 injured in South Korean blaze at bus terminal

At least five people have been dead and 38 others injured in a blaze that occurred at a bus terminal in a South Korean city on Monday morning, local broadcaster YTN reported. The South Korean fire department was quoted as saying that fire broke out at a food court in the first basement level of the Goyang Bus Terminal complex in Goyang, a city just north of the capital city of Seoul. The death toll was said earlier to have reached seven, but two escaped death after receiving the cardiopulmonary resuscitation ( CPR). As of 1:30 p.m., five have been confirmed dead with 38 others wounded. The fire, which started at 9:05 a.m. and was put out some 20 minutes later, was believed to have been caused by sparks flown from the welding works made in a snack bar at the food court, where workers were doing an interior construction to open the restaurant. The dead were mostly found in the toilet and the staircase on the second floor of the seven-story complex, with one discovered in the first basement near the construction site. Among the wounded, four sustained serious injury, boosting fears over a rising death toll. Those injured suffered from a poisonous gas inhalation. The wounded were taken to nearby hospitals. The complex, which can accommodate as much as 250 buses a day, was opened in June 2012. It is composed of a movie-theater on the fifth, sixth and seventh floors, business offices on the fourth floor, shopping center on the third floor and the bus terminal on the first and second floors. The first basement accommodates food court and shopping center, and at the second basement level is discount chain Homplus located. When the big fire broke out, the discount chain was not opened. A subway station of the Line No.3 is 200 meters away from the scene. Subways resumed normal operation from 10:24 a.m. after passing by the station without stoppage.