Jan. 20 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Nearly 500 people have been evacuated this Friday due to a fire that has occurred in Guryong, a slum in the South Korean capital, Seoul.
The fire would have broken out at 6.28 local time without a casualty balance being reported for the moment, as explained by the Seoul Fire Department, as reported by the Yonhap news agency.
A total of 170 firefighters, 300 government officials and 260 police officers are participating in emergency and rescue work in Guryong.
The country’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, has called for “maximum efforts” in mobilizing all available teams to ensure there are no casualties.
For his part, the Minister of the Interior, Lee Sang Min, has ordered the agents to prevent “any secondary damage”, protecting the residents.
Guryong, which is located near Gangnam Ward, an area with the most expensive real estate in the country, has more than 600 makeshift structures made of vinyl plywood panels, which have suffered large fires numerous times.
Called “Seoul’s last urban slum,” this area was established in the late 1980s, when hundreds of people were evicted from their homes in low-income districts in order to develop the city.
