S Korea orders probe after students killed by roof collapse

SEOUL: South Korean President Park Geun-Hye Tuesday called for a full investigation into the collapse of a student-packed auditorium near the southern city of Gyeongju that killed at least 10 people and injured more than 100.

More than 560 college students participating in a freshman orientation were believed to have been attending a concert in the building when the roof caved in on Monday -- apparently under the weight of heavy snow -- at around 9:15 pm (1215 GMT).The auditorium was part of a mountain resort complex near Gyeongju that had experienced unusually heavy snowfall in the preceding week.

"It is heart-rending that so may lives were sacrificed... a thorough investigation must be carried out," Park told a cabinet meeting.

The tragedy occurred as the country was still reeling from news of the bombing of a bus laden with South Korean tourists in Egypt near the Israeli border. Police said a suicide bomber was probably behind the attack on Sunday that killed three South Koreans and their Egyptian driver.

The resort auditorium was a pre-engineered building, assembled with rigid frames and side walls -- of a type normally used for storage houses and aviation hangars.

Fire officials said the accumulated weight of the snow piled on the roof of the building appeared to have caused the structure to buckle, raising questions about its soundness.

The Ministry of Security and Public Administration said 10 people, including nine students, were confirmed dead, with two more seriously injured and 101 others who suffered "bruises and cuts".

Some parents of the victims voiced outrage, saying the organisers of the orientation event had failed to ensure the students´ safety.

"What on earth were they doing? They didn´t even bother to take a look at the site before pushing through with the event despite such heavy snowfalls," a woman whose 18-year-old daughter was among the dead, told Yonhap news agency.

More than 1,400 rescuers and workers, backed by heavy equipment, had worked throughout the night under arc lights to clear the debris and snowfall to reach the victims. - Shouting and screaming -"The ceiling came crashing down at the front near the stage," one student told the YTN news channel.

"Then pandemonium broke out and everyone started rushing towards the exits, shouting and screaming," he added.

The ground around the building was covered with a thick blanket of snow, which continued to fall throughout the night, hampering the rescue efforts. The auditorium was part of the Mauna Ocean Resort, which had been hosting the freshman orientation for close to 1,000 students from a foreign language college in the southern city of Busan.

Fire officials said they had difficulty reaching the resort which had recorded more than 50 centimetres (20 inches) of snowfall in the last week.