Fires Break Out Sequentially at Two Buildings in Yeoksam-dong... 19 Injured

[Anchor]

Fires have broken out at two buildings in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, injuring 19 people. Police have apprehended and are questioning a man in his 70s as a suspect for arson.

Reporter Kwon Min-kyu has the first report.

[Reporter]

Pitch-black smoke billows out of a building, and exterior wall structures are torn off due to intense heat.

People escaping out of windows and waiting for rescue stand precariously with their backs against the exterior wall of the building, while firefighters attempt rescues using ladder trucks.

[Hurry, hurry. What do we do? The fire is spreading more.]

A fire broke out on the third floor of a 7-story building located in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

[Witness: A man leaned half his body out and kept asking to call an ambulance. Right next to him, black smoke was billowing and a huge fire was burning...]<br />
Eleven people were injured and transported to the hospital, including two with severe injuries, while about 60 people inside the building were urgently evacuated.

Among the severely injured, a woman in her 30s was found in cardiac arrest in the hallway of the third floor where the fire started, and she is reportedly now breathing again.

[Witness: I saw one person being carried out on a stretcher receiving CPR. I heard the sound of glass breaking and glass falling. And people could be seen inside...]<br />
However, just seven minutes after the fire report was received, another fire started at a different building only about 200 meters away.

Eight people were injured in the fire that started on the fourth floor of a 10-story commercial building, and three of them received treatment after showing severe breathing difficulty symptoms.

[Witness: People were murmuring that a fire broke out and that we had to get out. An announcement suddenly came on telling us to evacuate outside the building...]<br />
Responding to reports that "someone set a fire," the fire authorities issued a Level 1 response and brought the flames under control at both buildings in about an hour.

Police identified a man in his 70s, Mr. A, as the suspect who allegedly set fires sequentially at the two buildings, and stated that they apprehended Mr. A near Jongno-gu, Seoul, at around 4:10 PM, four hours after the fires broke out.

(Video reporting: Kim Se-kyung, Yang Ji-hoon | Video editing: Lee Hong-myung | Design: Kim Han-gil)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.