Dozens killed in South Korean hospital fire

A fire raced through a small South Korean hospital with no sprinkler system on Friday, killing 37 people, many of them elderly, and injuring more than 140 others in the country’s deadliest blaze in about a decade.

Sejong Hospital in the southeastern city of Miryang has a separate nursing ward where 94 elderly patients were being treated, but all of them were safely evacuated, fire officials said.

Most of the victims were on the first and second floors of the hospital’s six-story general ward, where its emergency room and intensive-care unit were located. Officials believe the fire started in the emergency room.

Mirayng police official Kim Han-su said 34 of the dead were women and 26 were in their 80s or older. He said police may be able to announce the cause of the fire on Saturday. (AP)

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