Fire breaks out in shantytown in Seoul's Gangnam district

Flames and thick smoke rise from a fire at Guryong Village in Seoul, South Korea, October 27, 2026. Yonhap/via REUTERS

Flames and thick smoke rise from a fire at Guryong Village in Seoul, South Korea, October 27, 2026. Yonhap/via REUTERS (REUTERS)


8 photos
Save Story

Estimated read time: Less than a minute

SEOUL, Oct 27 — A fire broke out on ​Tuesday in Guryong village, a shantytown in Seoul's upmarket Gangnam district, affecting ‌77 households and 107 people, South Korea's Yonhap ⁠news agency said.

No ​injuries or casualties ⁠had been reported, a fire official ‌told Reuters, and ‌Yonhap said people had evacuated to ⁠an emergency shelter.

The ⁠fire agency has deployed 232 personnel and 70 vehicles to fight the fire, which began at about 3:50 p.m. local time (0650 GMT) in a ‌temporary structure, Yonhap said. ​Six helicopters were sent to stop the fire 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; Editing by Ed Davies and Raju ​Gopalakrishnan)

Photos

Most recent World stories

Related topics

STAY IN THE KNOW

Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Notice.
Newsletter Signup

KSL Weather Forecast

KSL Weather Forecast
Play button