Seven dead in South Korea hotel fire

Seven people were killed and 12 others injured in a fire at a hotel in South Korea, authorities said Friday.

The blaze erupted Thursday night in a room on the eighth floor of a hotel in Bucheon, around 25 kilometres (15 miles) west of Seoul, Seoul's interior ministry said in a statement.

The cause of the fire, which was extinguished about three hours after it began, was not yet clear, the ministry said, adding three people had been seriously injured.

The nine-story hotel had 64 rooms and 27 guests were staying there when the fire broke out, according to Seoul's Yonhap news agency.

While the blaze did not spread extensively within the building, the smoke it generated led to casualties, the news agency reported.

In June, 23 people were killed in a massive fire at a South Korean lithium battery plant, one of the country's worst factory disasters in years.