On Wednesday, 9 June 2021 at 16:22
KST, a five-story building collapsed in
Gwangju
Gwangju () is South Korea's sixth-largest metropolis. It is a designated metropolitan city under the direct control of the central government's Home Minister. The city was also the capital of South Jeolla Province until the provincial office ...
,
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
during demolition, killing at least nine people and critically injuring eight. All of the casualties were passengers on a bus that was stopped at a station next to the building.
Collapse
At 04:22 p.m.
KST, a 5-story building was in the process of being demolished when a portion of the building collapsed onto a 7-lane road. The collapse buried a bus and 2 cars near a station next to the building under thousands of tonnes of rubble, and trapped dozens of passengers. All of the fatalities were bus passengers. The heap of rubble was 10 metres tall; rescuers used heavy machinery to comb through the wreckage. Nine people were found dead inside of the bus and eight others were critically injured.
Investigation
In the immediate aftermath of the collapse, Police booked 4 people, three workers from two different demolition companies and a supervisor from another company were booked without detention on charges on involuntary manslaughter.
Police also probed whether a former member of an organized crime ring was overseeing the demolition of the building. On the 16th of June, police raided the headquarters of
HDC Hyundai Development Company
HDC Hyundai Development Company ( ko, HDC현대산업개발) was created in 2018 through a spin-off from HDC Group's holding company HDC Holdings. The company is active in real estate development, construction and hospitality.
History
HDC Hy ...
in Seoul to execute a search and seizure warrant ascertain whether the company was responsible for the disaster.
The person responsible for overseeing the demolition works was arrested at an airport after three months on the run.
See also
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Surfside condominium collapse
On June 24, 2021, at approximately 1:22 a.m. EDT, Champlain Towers South, a 12-story beachfront condominium in the Miami suburb of Surfside, Florida, United States, partially collapsed, causing the death of 98 people. Four people were ...
References
June 2021 events in South Korea
Building collapses in 2021
2021 disasters in South Korea
Building collapses in Asia
History of Gwangju
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