South Korea: One killed, four feared dead, two unaccounted for in power plant collapse

Ulsan, Nov 7 (IANS) One worker has died and four others were presumed dead after being discovered under a collapsed boiler tower at a thermal power plant in the southeastern city of Ulsan on Friday, with two others remaining unaccounted for, firefighting officials said.

The boiler tower collapsed at a power plant of the Ulsan branch of Korea East-West Power Co., a state-run utility company, the previous day, Yonhap news agency reported.

One worker was pronounced dead Friday, while another four were feared dead, firefighting officials said. Of the four, one was taken to a hospital, and operations to pull out the other three were under way.

The exact locations of the remaining two were still unknown.

Initially, nine workers had been reported trapped, but two were rescued early on.

The deceased, 44, was pronounced dead around 5 a.m. after going into cardiac arrest while rescue workers tried to pull him out, Kim Jeong-sik, an official at the Ulsan Nambu fire station, told reporters.

"A rescue worker injected him with painkillers and took measures to keep him warm, but he eventually passed away," Kim said, adding the other worker spotted with him was also difficult to pull out and presumed dead.

Firefighters had to work through some 30 meters of steel and other debris to reach the site of the collapse.

The tower was 60 meters tall and reportedly in the process of being dismantled using explosives. The trapped people were all presumed to be employees of a subcontractor.

--IANS

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