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Seoul: A man was arrested in South Korea on Thursday (Aug 22) after an explosion at a dental hospital in the country caused a fire and forced the evacuation of about 90 people, police said.
A box resembling a courier package exploded at the entrance of a three-story hospital in Gwangju, about 267 kilometers south of Seoul, forcing everyone in the building, including patients, to evacuate, local police told AFP. No casualties were reported.
An official from the Gwangju District Police Station said the box contained four butane canisters and a plastic container of flammable materials, and the fire caused by the explosion damaged the ceiling and some furniture.
Gwangju police said about 45 officers, including members of the SWAT team, were dispatched to the scene.
The suspect, who was identified through surveillance footage, eventually surrendered at a police station about two hours after the blast, police added.
South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported that the suspect was a man in his 70s who had been treated at the hospital and planted the explosives because he was dissatisfied with the hospital’s services.
He placed the box at the hospital entrance, set it on fire and then fled, Yonhap News Agency said, citing authorities that reviewed CCTV footage.
South Korea is widely considered a safe country, with a murder rate of just 1.4 per 100,000 people in 2022, and extreme violent crime, including acts of terrorism, is rare.
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