South Korea: Ventilation tunnel collapses at performance center, 15 dead

According to Korean media on October 17, at 5:53 p.m. the same day, at an outdoor performance venue called Banco Techno Valley in Buntang District, Seongnam City, Gyeonggi Province (about 35km southeast of central Seoul), a building's ventilation shaft collapsed, causing the audience sitting on it to fall to the ground.

Firefighters transport injured people to hospital. (Source: Yonhap)

This is the ventilation cover for the 4-storey underground parking lot under the ground of a 6-storey building, the height of the ventilation tunnel is about 10m.

There is no final information on the number of casualties yet, however, as of 7:50 p.m. the same day, the Gyonggi Provincial Fire Police said that of the 25 people rescued and taken to 3 nearby hospitals for emergency treatment, 15 people died and 10 people were seriously injured.

Meanwhile, Buntang District Police, Seongnam City said 14 people were killed and 11 seriously injured.

There are currently many people gathered around the outdoor performance center, but order is still maintained and authorities are continuing rescue work at the scene.

Accident scene. (Source: Yonhap News)

This is a performance with about 700 audience members, mostly students.

Previously, the host had also given a warning of danger, but some viewers still sat on the ventilation shaft cover and the unfortunate accident occurred./.

According to VNA