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)


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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)

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