[Anchor]

A man in his 70s set fire to two buildings in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, yesterday (October 20). Nineteen citizens were injured, and dozens had to evacuate in a hurry.

We have the details in our first report from reporter Dong Eunyeong.

[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 to rescue them using a ladder truck.

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

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

[Witness: One man leaned half his body out and kept asking to call an ambulance. Right next to him, black smoke and a massive fire were raging….]

Eleven people were injured and transported to the hospital, including two with serious injuries, and around 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, but she is reportedly breathing again now.

[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….]

However, it was found that another fire had broken out about 10 minutes prior at another building just some 200 meters away.

Eight people were injured in this fire on the fourth floor of a 10-story commercial building, among whom three received treatment for severe breathing difficulty symptoms.

[Witness: People were murmuring that a fire broke out and that we needed to get out. An announcement suddenly came on telling us to evacuate outside the building….]

The firefighting authorities, responding to a report that "someone set a fire," issued a Level 1 response and brought the flames under control at both buildings in about an hour.

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

(Camera reporting: Kim Se-kyung, Yang Ji-hoon | Video editing: Lee Hong-myeong | Design: Kim Han-gil)