The chief of Hyundai Development apologized Wednesday over the collapse of a facade on a high-rise apartment building under construction, which left six workers missing.
The exterior wall of the apartment building in the southwestern city of Gwangju crumbled and fell at around 3:46 p.m. Tuesday, injuring at least one person and burying 10 vehicles under the rubble.
A total of 394 people were working at the scene of the accident, but six of them were unaccounted for, although their mobile phones received network signals near the scene, according to police.
Hyundai Development is the main contractor for the construction project.
“We deeply apologize to the missing workers and their families, and Gwangju citizens… We are thoroughly responsible for the accident,” Yoo Byung-kyu, chief executive of Hyundai Development, said in a press conference near the construction site in western Gwangju, 330 kilometers south of Seoul.
Rescue workers temporarily stopped searching the rubble for any other victims due to concerns that the rest of the facade along with a tower crane could collapse. They will decide when to resume the search after conducting safety checks.
In June last year, Hyundai Development was also involved in the collapse of a five-story building being demolished in Gwangju that killed nine passengers in a passing bus. (Yonhap)