[Anchor]

It has been confirmed that the commercial building in Daegu, where the ceiling collapsed last weekend, was not subject to safety inspections under current laws. Although it was over 30 years old, it was left in a blind spot because it was a small building.

TBC reporter Ahn Sang-hyuk has the details.

[Reporter]

This is the building where the ceiling collapse accident occurred on October 10.

Collapsed finishing materials and steel structures were tangled together, turning the interior of the second floor into chaos.

It is an aging building constructed more than 30 years ago.

However, it had been omitted from safety management targets.

This is because its total floor area is only 892 square meters, making it exempt from safety inspection requirements under the Building Management Act.

[Song Chang-young, Chairman of the Korea Disaster and Safety Technology Institute: The Building Management Acts have selected targets based on scale. This is a very wrong mindset. Accidents do not fail to happen just because a scale is small; in fact, the frequency is higher.]

As loopholes in safety management for small-scale aging buildings were exposed, the Daegu Metropolitan Government announced emergency measures.

First, by the end of the year, a joint inspection team will be formed to conduct intensive inspections targeting 1,743 small-scale aging buildings that are 30 years or older.

Plans are also underway to check whether corrective measures are properly implemented.

[Park Hee-jun, Head of Daegu City Disaster and Safety Management Bureau: Taking the case that occurred this time as an opportunity, the city of Daegu will thoroughly examine risk factors and take necessary measures, making every effort to ensure that citizens can live safely without anxiety.]

The Daegu Metropolitan Police Agency, which is investigating the collapse, has booked one official from a company that sold daily necessities and other goods to the elderly on the day of the accident under charges of professional negligence resulting in injury.

Police have secured testimonies that a maintenance work had been carried out once in the past on the second floor of the building, which was used as a billiard room, and are investigating whether shoddy construction was involved.

(Video by: Lee Sang-ho, TBC / Kim Nam-yong, TBC)

TBC Ahn Sang-hyuk