බැටරි කම්හලේ ගින්නෙන් 22ක් මරුට

The Chinese Embassy in South Korea confirmed that 18 Chinese citizens were among those killed in the fire.

22 dead, 8 injured in S. Korea's battery plant fire

Twenty-two people were confirmed dead and eight others injured in South Korea's battery plant fire on Monday, according to the fire authorities.

The fire broke out at a primary battery plant in Hwaseong, around 45 km south of the capital Seoul, at about 10:31 local time (0131 GMT).

Kim Jin-young, a local fire station officer, said in a televised briefing that rescue workers retrieved the bodies of the 21 missing factory workers who had failed to escape through stairs after the fire outbreak.

Ahead of the search operation inside the ill-fated plant, one worker died after having been found in cardiac arrest.

Two others were seriously wounded, while six suffered minor injuries such as smoke inhalation.

One worker remained unaccounted for, but it was not clear whether the worker had been trapped inside the factory or simply not reached, according to the fire officer.

Firefighters struggled to extinguish the fire because of the difficulty in putting out the flame of lithium batteries.

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