SEOUL, Oct 27 (Reuters) – A fire broke out on Tuesday in Guryong village, a shantytown in Seoul’s upmarket Gangnam district, affecting 77 households and 107 people, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said.
No injuries or casualties had been reported, a fire official told Reuters, and Yonhap said people had evacuated to an emergency shelter.
The fire agency has deployed 232 personnel and 70 vehicles to fight the fire, which began at about 3:50 p.m. local time (0650 GMT) in a temporary structure, Yonhap said. Six helicopters were sent to stop the fire spreading to a nearby mountain.
Guryong, often described as Seoul’s largest remaining shantytown, emerged in the 1970s and 1980s when families displaced by public works projects settled on the edge of Gangnam without permits. Its densely packed homes are built with flammable materials such as vinyl sheets and plywood.
A major fire in the village in January forced hundreds of residents to evacuate.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Ed Davies and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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