Gwangju I-Park Collapse Accident, Search Suspended... 6 Missing Persons 'In the Dark'

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] The exterior wall of an apartment under construction in Gwangju collapsed. Due to the possibility of further collapse, the search for missing persons is facing difficulties.

On the 11th, the fire authorities announced that the 140-meter-high tower crane is at risk of falling due to the collapse impact, so nighttime search operations have been suspended and will resume at daylight to find the missing persons.

After conducting a safety inspection, the timing of whether to continue the search will be decided based on the results.

The accident occurred around 3:47 a.m. on the same day, when the exterior walls from the 23rd to the 34th floors collapsed during concrete pouring work. It is estimated that the formwork collapsed and the tower crane support was damaged due to the pouring load and strong winds.

Six workers are also missing. Among them, three were performing masonry work on the 28th to 29th floors, and the other three were working on window installation on the 31st to 34th floors. They have been unreachable for over five hours, raising concerns. The location tracking of their mobile phones shows they are within a 2 km radius of the collapsed building.

Families of the missing who rushed to the site after hearing the news are pacing anxiously. They expressed, "There is nothing we can do, it’s just frustrating," and "The phone batteries are dead, so there is no signal. We don’t know what to do, it’s frustrating."

Another four people at the site were also injured. One person was lightly injured by falling debris and was transported to the hospital. Two were trapped on the first floor of a container and rescued, and one evacuated on their own.

Currently, a total of 293 personnel have been mobilized at the accident site, including 75 firefighters, 175 police officers, 25 related agency staff, and 8 district office employees. Equipment deployed includes 34 firefighting vehicles and 15 police vehicles, totaling 54 units.

The building in question is a complex of 7 buildings with 847 households, ranging from 4 basement floors to 39 floors above ground. Construction registration was completed on March 13, 2020. The planned construction period was from June 2019 to November of this year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.