No Additional Missing Persons in 'Gwangju Collapse Accident'... Full Support for Rescue of Buried Victims on 26th Floor

Difficulty Accessing 26th Floor Where Buried Person Located, Rescue Direction Changed

Photo of debris removal and search and rescue activities on the 26th floor of Building 201 on the 8th. Photo by Gwangju Metropolitan City Fire Safety Headquarters

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Cho Hyung-joo] At the site of the collapse accident during the new construction of the Hyundai Industrial Development apartment in Hwajeong-dong, Gwangju, it has been confirmed that there are no additional buried missing persons except for the last buried person.

The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters and the local Integrated Accident Response Headquarters stated at the regular briefing on the afternoon of the 8th, "We recently conducted a final confirmation (regarding additional buried victims)," and "As a result of the confirmation, it was found that there are no other missing persons besides the existing six missing persons."

The rescue authorities changed the rescue direction as it became difficult to enter the 26th floor, where the buried person's location was identified, due to entanglement with rebar and construction materials on the south outer wall where victims are located.

The plan is to create a detour by removing the supports inside the 26th floor and then using heavy equipment to access the site through the empty space.

The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters plans to proceed with full-scale rescue operations once the access route is secured by using two mini excavators to break and remove the overlapping debris one by one and transport the debris.

Lee Il, Director of the 119 Response Bureau at the Fire Agency, said, "The time required varies depending on the form in which the buried person is located, so the rescue time cannot be specified," and added, "We will speed up the work with the aim of completing the recovery within the day, even if it goes past midnight."

Meanwhile, on the afternoon of the 11th of last month, around 3:46 PM, the outer walls of the 23rd to 38th floors of Building 201, an apartment under construction in Hwajeong-dong, Seo-gu, Gwangju, collapsed.

As a result of this accident, six people went missing; five have been recovered so far, and rescue operations for one person are ongoing.

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