The fire erupted at 0927 GMT in Guryong Village in southern Seoul, which is home to more than 660 households.
The fire erupted at 6:27 a.m. in Guryong Village in southern Seoul, which is home to more than 660 households, and was extinguished about five hours later.
President Yoon Suk-yeol, who is in Switzerland at the World Economic Forum, called for all-out efforts to minimise the damage and mobilise all available firefighters and equipment, his spokeswoman Kim Eun-hye said. One of the last remaining slums, the village is a symbol of inequality in Asia's fourth-largest economy just next to the flashy, affluent district of Gangnam.
The government had unveiled plans for redevelopment and relocation after a huge fire in late 2014, but those efforts have made little progress amid a decades-long tug of war between landowners, residents and authorities.
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