At least 37 people have been killed and about 130 injured in a fire at a hospital in South Korea.
The blaze is thought to have started in the emergency room at Sejong Hospital in the south-eastern city of Miryang.
Nearly 200 patients were inside the building and an adjoining nursing home when the fire broke out in the morning.
It is South Korea’s deadliest fire in almost a decade and the death toll is expected to rise with several of the injured in critical condition.
Firefighters said the victims appeared to have died from smoke inhalation. Three hospital medical staff – a doctor, nurse and nursing assistant – are among the victims.
Authorities have given varying death tolls, with police earlier saying 41 had died. But the officials later corrected this, saying some victims were counted twice.
The fire completely gutted the hospital’s first floor, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reports.
Miryang is about 270km (168 miles) south-east of the capital, Seoul.
