(ECNS) -- A total of 22 people were confirmed dead and eight others injured in South Korea's battery plant fire on Monday, according to media reports.
The fire broke out at a primary battery plant in Hwaseong, some 45 km south of the capital Seoul, at about 10:31 a.m. local time (0131 GMT).
The Chinese embassy in South Korea said in a statement that the South Korean side preliminarily confirmed that a dozen of Chinese people unfortunately died from the fire accident and it had yet to confirm the detailed death toll.
Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Xing Haiming contacted the governor of Gyeonggi province, in which the fire accident occurred, to call for the rescue and treatment of the Chinese people as much as possible.
Kim Jin-young, a local fire station official, said in a televised briefing that of the total dead were 20 foreigners. The victims were believed to have failed to escape through stairs to the ground.
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