Today's Major News: Magnitude 7.4 Earthquake in Colombia Leaves Over 600 Casualties

1. A powerful magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck western Colombia on the 10th, local time, has left 132 people dead and over 500 injured so far. The earthquake, which occurred in San Jose del Palmar, Choco Province, near the Pacific coast, caused more than 100 houses to collapse in cities east of the epicenter such as Pereira, Cali, and Manizales, leading to a mounting death toll. A state of emergency has been declared, and rescue and search operations are underway. South Korea's diplomatic authorities stated that no casualties among South Korean expatriates have been reported yet.

2. A large fire broke out early this morning (the 11th) at a hazardous materials storage warehouse in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province. After deploying a national firefighting mobilization order to battle the blaze, firefighters brought the major flames under control around 9:00 AM, about nine hours after it started. The site of the fire is a one-story warehouse storing Category 4 hazardous materials, which are flammable liquids, and it was found to have housed 1.91 million liters of roughly 100 different types of chemicals. No casualties from the fire have been reported thus far.

3. The special investigation unit of the police probing the Muan Airport passenger plane disaster has been conducting raids on the Korea Airports Corporation, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and the Busan Regional Office of Aviation starting from 9:00 AM today. This marks the third time the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has been subjected to a search and seizure. The special unit explained that the raid is aimed at securing additional materials related to professional negligence resulting in death and injury. The police, who have booked 74 people so far, are also reviewing whether to apply charges under the Serious Accidents Punishment Act.

4. Buoyed by a booming semiconductor industry, export value for the second quarter of this year hit a record high since statistics began. According to figures compiled by Statistics Korea and the Korea Customs Service, export value for the second quarter of this year reached 275.5 billion dollars, a 57% increase compared to the same period last year. The export growth was led by large conglomerates and the electrical and electronics sectors. In particular, the top 10 exporting companies accounted for 55.3% of total exports, up 17 percentage points from a year earlier.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.