Seoul shantytown fire extinguished, Yonhap reports

SEOUL, Oct 27 (Reuters) - ‌A fire ​that ​broke out on Tuesday in Guryong village, a shantytown in Seoul's ‌upmarket Gangnam district, affecting 77 households and ⁠107 people, has been extinguished, South Korea's Yonhap news ‌agency said.

Firefighters extinguished the ‌fire after nearly 13 hours, with one woman suffering a minor leg injury, it ​added.

Yonhap said people had evacuated to an emergency shelter.

The National Fire Agency ⁠deployed 232 personnel and 110 pieces of equipment to fight ​the blaze, which began at about 3:50 p.m. local time (0650 GMT) in a ​temporary structure, Yonhap said. ‌It sent six helicopters to stop the fire from 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; ‌Additional Reporting by ​Hyunsu Yim and Heejin Kim; Editing by Ed Davies, Raju Gopalakrishnan, Rod ‌Nickel)

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