SEOUL, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- A fire broke out at an outlet mall in the South Korea's central city of Daejeon on Monday, leaving seven people dead and another seriously injured, according to Yonhap news agency.
The blaze began at around 7:45 a.m. local time from the underground cargo-handling area in the first-basement parking lot of an outlet store in Daejeon, some 160 km south of the capital Seoul.
Among the eight employees working at the basement parking area when the fire broke out, seven were killed and one was seriously wounded.
Over 100 people, mostly those at nearby buildings, were evacuated. No customer was around the outlet as the incident occurred before business hours.
The fire authorities dispatched over 120 personnel and various firefighting equipment, but they had difficulty in the search operations due to heavy smoke coming from burning cardboard boxes in the cargo-handling area.
The flame was completely extinguished at about 3:02 p.m. local time. ■
