Migrant worker in suffocation accident dies

Rescue workers carry out relief work inside an underground tank at a fishery products processing factory in Yeongdeok, North Gyeongsang Province, Wednesday. Yonhap

A fourth migrant worker involved in a suffocation accident inside a storage tank has died while being treated at a hospital Wednesday, local fire authorities said.

The accident took place in an underground tank at a squid processing factory in Chuksan Port in Yeongdeok, 350 kilometers southeast of Seoul, at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday and left three of the workers dead at the scene and the other in a coma. The tank stores byproducts from squid processing.

According to the North Gyeongsang Province Fire Service Headquarters, one of the workers entered the three-meter-deep tank for cleaning work and fell to the bottom after inhaling toxic gas. The three other workers, who entered it later, met the same fate.

Reportedly, none were wearing safety equipment at the time of the accident, even though there was a high risk of inhaling toxic gas from decomposed products.

"The surviving Thai worker in a coma passed away at 1:00 a.m. Wednesday at a hospital," the fire headquarters said.

Three of the four, whose names were not made public, were from Thailand and one was Vietnamese.

Police and the labor ministry are currently investigating the accident. (Yonhap)

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