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Fire Breaks Out in Seoul Slum

by VOA News

   South Korean officials say at least 500 people have been evacuated
   after a fire erupted in a capital city slum, located near some of
   Seoul's most expensive real estate.

   Seoul authorities say no deaths or injuries have been reported.

   Hundreds of fire fighters and emergency personnel responded to the
   blaze in the Guryong Village district.

   The cause of the fire was not immediately clear, but some of the homes
   in the area were reportedly built with cardboard and wood, making the
   dwellings vulnerable to fires and flooding.

   The village was established in the 1980s as a settlement for people who
   lost their homes in low-income districts during the rapid development
   of the capital ahead of the 1986 Asian Games and the 1988 Seoul
   Olympics.

   A spokesperson for President Yoon Suk-yeol said the leader, in
   Switzerland for the World Economic Forum in Davos, was alarmed by news
   about the fire.

   Some information for this report came from The Associated Press,
   Reuters and Agence France Presse.