A lithium battery factory in South Korea was set on fire after multiple batteries exploded on Monday, killing 22 workers, most of them Chinese nationals, fire officials said.

The fire and a series of explosions ripped through the factory run by primary battery manufacturer Aricell in Hwaseong, an industrial cluster southwest of the capital Seoul, Reuters reported.

The victims likely succumbed to extremely toxic gas within seconds of the blaze getting out of control, the officials said. It was unclear what caused the explosions and the fire was largely extinguished in about six hours.

Eighteen Chinese workers, two South Koreans and one Laotian were among the dead. The nationality of the other deceased worker was yet to be confirmed, Kim Jin-young, an official at the Hwaseong fire service, told reporters, citing information from company officials.

The blaze was first reported at 10:31 a.m. (0131 GMT) after a series of battery cells exploded inside a warehouse of 35,000 batteries, Kim said.

A Reuters journalist saw firefighters moving up to six bodies out of the factory. Due to the intensity of the blaze, rescuers were finding it difficult to identify the dead, Kim said.

Two people were being treated for major burns, officials at the scene said.

Live TV footage showed firefighters spraying the damaged steel and concrete building. Parts of the upper level had collapsed, and large chunks of the building looked like they had been blown out into the street by explosions, read the report.

Aerial footage showed massive white smoke clouds billowing from the structure and explosions rolling through the building.

Gyeonggi province fire official Cho Sun-ho said most of the foreign workers killed were temporary hires, likely unfamiliar with the structure of the building. Smoke and the fire blaze spread within 15 seconds and the victims likely succumbed after taking one or two breaths, he said.

HIGHLY FLAMMABLE

Kim Jae-ho, Fire and Disaster Prevention professor at Daejeon University, said the fire had probably spread too quickly for workers to escape.

“Battery materials such as nickel are easily flammable,” he said. “So often, there is not enough time to respond, compared to a fire caused by other materials.”

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol visited the scene of the accident later on Monday. Interior Minister Lee Sang-min called on local authorities to take steps to prevent any hazardous chemicals from contaminating the surrounding area, Reuters reported.

Established in 2020, South Korea-based Aricell makes lithium primary batteries for sensors and radio communication devices. It has 48 employees, according to its latest regulatory filing and its Linkedin profile.

Calls to Aricell offices were unanswered.

The company is not listed on South Korea’s stock market but is majority owned by S-Connect, according to Aricell’s regulatory filing. S-Connect is registered on the junior Kosdaq index and its shares closed down 22.5%.

Battery production involves the use of highly toxic materials.

“The fact that there were so many casualties when this was on only the second floor is because of the toxic materials and not so much because of burns,” said Park Chul-wan at Seojeong University.

South Korea is home to major producers of lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles (EVs) and to one of the world’s biggest automakers, Hyundai Motor, and its affiliate Kia (000270.KS), opens new tab, which are making a push to shift away from internal combustion cars to EVs.

Two years ago South Korea brought in legislation to punish the executives of a company in the event of a fatal accident with possible jail terms after the country saw dozens of workers killed in industrial accidents each year.

Eight Palestinians were killed on Sunday in an Israeli airstrike on a training college near Gaza City being used to distribute aid, Palestinian witnesses said, as Israeli tanks pushed further into the southern city of Rafah, Reuters reported .

The strike hit part of a vocational college run by the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA that is now providing aid to displaced families, the witnesses said.

“Some people were coming to receive coupons and others had been displaced from their houses and they were sheltering here. Some were filling up water, others were receiving coupons, and suddenly we heard something falling. We ran away, those who were carrying water let it spill,” said Mohammed Tafesh, one of the witnesses.

A Reuters photographer saw a low-rise building completely demolished and bodies wrapped in blankets laid out beside the road, waiting to be taken away.

“We pulled out martyrs (from beneath the rubble), one who used to sell cold drinks and another who used to sell pastries and others who distributed or received coupons,” Tafesh said. “There are about four or five martyrs and 10 injured. Thank God, the condition of the injured is good.”

The Israeli military said the site, which it said had served in the past as a UNRWA headquarters, has been used by Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants. It added that precautionary measures were taken before the strike to reduce the risk of harming civilians, read the report.

“This morning (Sunday), IAF fighter jets directed by IDF and ISA intelligence struck terrorist infrastructure in which Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were operating,” the military said in a statement.

“This is another example of Hamas’ systematic exploitation of civilian infrastructure and the civilian population as a human shield for its terrorist activities,” it added.

Hamas denies Israeli accusations that it uses civilians as human shields or civilian facilities for military purposes.

Juliette Touma, UNRWA’s director of communications, said the agency was looking into details of the reported attack before providing more information.

“Since the beginning of the war, we have recorded that nearly 190 of our buildings have been hit. This is the vast majority of our buildings in Gaza,” she said. A total of 193 UNRWA team members have been killed in the conflict, she added.

Just after midnight, an Israeli air strike hit a clinic in Gaza City, killing the director of ambulance and emergency services at the territory’s health ministry, Hani Al-Jaafarwi, and another medical staffer, Hamas media said. There was no immediate Israeli comment.

‘INTENSE PHASE’ ENDING

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the phase of intense fighting against Hamas in the Gaza Strip would end “very soon” but that the war would not end until the Islamist group no longer controls the Palestinian enclave.

“After the intense phase is finished, we will have the possibility to move part of the forces north. And we will do this,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 14.

Israel’s fighting against Iran-backed Hezbollah has escalated on the northern border with Lebanon, where many Israeli towns have been evacuated. Netanyahu said a northern deployment would allow residents to come home.

More than eight months into Israel’s war in the Hamas-administered Palestinian enclave, its advance is focused on the two areas its forces have yet to seize – Rafah on Gaza’s southern tip and the area surrounding Deir al-Balah in the centre, Reuters reported.

Israel’s ground and air campaign in Gaza was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

The Israeli offensive in retaliation has killed almost 37,600 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, and has left Gaza in ruins.

Residents said Israeli tanks had advanced to the edge of the Mawasi displaced persons’ camp in the northwest of Rafah in fierce fighting with Hamas-led fighters, part of a push into western and northern Rafah during which they had blown up dozens of houses in recent days.

“The fighting with the resistance has been intense. The occupation forces are overlooking the Mawasi area now, which forced families there to head for Khan Younis,” said one resident, who asked not to be named, on a chat app.

The Israeli military said it was continuing “intelligence-based, targeted operations” in the Rafah area and had located weapons stores and tunnel shafts, and killed Palestinian gunmen.

The armed wings of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad movement said their fighters had attacked Israeli forces in Rafah with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs and pre-planted explosive devices.

In Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, health officials at Kamal Adwan Hospital said two babies had died of malnutrition. That took the number of children who have died of malnutrition or dehydration since Oct. 7 to at least 31, which health officials say is likely an undercount.

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