Another tremor reported in Techno-Mart

By Lee Hyo-sik

An employee of a tenant in Techno-Mart, a 39-story shopping mall and office building complex in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, reported experiencing a vertical tremor Thursday to 119 emergency call centers, officials said.

The call to the emergency services, which came more than one month after a jolt forced thousands of shoppers and residents to evacuate the building, once more caused a nearby fire station to dispatch rescue vehicles and dozens of personnel to the scene.

At around 11:04 a.m., the worker on the 33rd floor called 119 emergency services, reporting that he felt the building moved up and down. People between the 24th and 34th floors reportedly felt the vibration.

But the Gwangjin Fire Station, which answered the call, said its rescue workers did not discover anything out of the ordinary at the building.

The Gwangjin District Office also did not issue an evacuation order.

At the time of the reported shaking, about 10 people were riding exercise bikes at a sports center located on the 12th floor.

Prime Development, the management firm of Techno-Mart, said there is nothing wrong with the building, adding what was reported was a minor tremor, sometimes detected as in the past.

Techno-Mart was shut down on July 5 for two days during which an extensive safety inspection was conducted after the building shook for 10 minutes.

The district office and the fire station failed to pinpoint the cause exactly.

An inspection committee, consisting of researchers from the architectural institute and vibration measurement experts, tentatively concluded two weeks later that a form of aerobic exercise performed by dozens of people caused the vertical vibration felt on certain floors of Techno-Mart.