Ulsan: Three workers have died and two others were presumed dead after being discovered under a collapsed boiler tower at a thermal power plant in the southeastern city of Ulsan on Friday, with two others remaining unaccounted for, firefighting officials said. The incident occurred at a power plant operated by the Ulsan branch of Korea East-West Power Co., a state-run utility company.

According to Yonhap News Agency, two workers were pronounced dead after being pulled out of the rubble, raising the death toll to three. One person had been declared dead while still trapped earlier in the day. Efforts to recover another two workers were ongoing, though both were feared dead, with their exact locations still unknown.

Initially, nine workers had been reported trapped in the collapse. However, two workers were successfully rescued early on. Among the deceased was a 44-year-old man who was pronounced dead around 5 a.m. after suffering cardiac arrest during the rescue effort. Kim Jeong-sik, an official at the Ulsan Nambu fire station, reported that rescue workers administered painkillers and attempted to keep the man warm, but he eventually succumbed to his injuries.

Firefighting crews faced significant challenges while navigating through approximately 30 meters of steel and other debris to reach the collapse site. The tower, standing 60 meters tall, was reportedly in the process of being dismantled using explosives at the time of the incident. All trapped individuals were believed to be employees of a subcontractor.