SEOUL: A fire on Friday in one of Seoul’s last-remaining shanty towns burned makeshift houses and forced dozens of residents to flee, but no casualties were immediately reported.
Much of the fire was under control about 6 1/2 hours after the blaze broke out in Guryong village in southern Seoul, fire officials said.
Local fire officer Jeong Gwang-hun told a televised briefing that rescuers were searching each house in the burned area to look for possible victims.
More than 1,200 personnel including firefighters and police officers were deployed to the scene, he said, adding the cause of the fire was under investigation.
The hillside village has occasionally had fires over the years, a vulnerability that observers say is linked to its tightly packed homes built with materials that easily burn.
The village is located near some of Seoul’s most expensive neighborhoods, with towering high-rise apartments and lavish shopping districts, and has long been a symbol of South Korea’s stark income inequalities.
The village was formed in the 1980s as a settlement for people who were evicted from their original neighborhoods under massive house clearings and redevelopment projects.
Hundreds of thousands of people in the city were removed from their homes in slums and low-income settlements during those years, a process then military-backed leaders saw as crucial in beautifying the city for foreign visitors ahead of the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.
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Fire breaks out in Seoul’s last-remaining shanty town
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Fire breaks out in Seoul’s last-remaining shanty town
- The hillside village has occasionally had fires over the years, a vulnerability that observers say is linked to its tightly packed homes built with materials that easily burn
French police raid Arab World Institute in Paris as Epstein fallout widens
PARIS: French police searched the Arab World Institute in Paris on Monday as part of a probe into its former head, ex-culture minister Jack Lang, and his links to late convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, prosecutors said.
France’s National Financial Prosecutor (PNF) said in a statement that the Arab World Institute was among several locations being raided.
Prosecutors this month opened a preliminary investigation of Lang and his daughter Caroline on suspicion of tax fraud following the release of documents on Epstein in the US
Lang, who was culture minister under late Socialist president Francois Mitterrand, resigned this month from the Arab World Institute, which he had led since 2013.
He has said he was unaware of Epstein’s crimes despite corresponding with him between 2012 and 2019, 11 years after the financier was convicted of soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. Epstein died in prison by suicide in 2019.
The Institute, which is overseen by France’s foreign ministry, said it could not immediately comment on the police action.
Both Jack and Caroline Lang have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and receiving financial benefits from Epstein. Their lawyer Laurent Merlet told French broadcaster BFMTV this month that “there was no movement of funds.”
Fallout from the release of millions of new documents related to Epstein has rippled through Europe.
On Saturday, Paris prosecutors set up a dedicated team to review the files, coordinating with the financial prosecutor and national police.
The office said it was analizing several potential cases stemming from the Epstein files.
One concerns French diplomat Fabrice Aidan, alleged to have transferred United Nations documents to Epstein.
Aidan, who worked at the UN from July 2006 to April 2013, has rejected the accusations through his lawyer.
France’s National Financial Prosecutor (PNF) said in a statement that the Arab World Institute was among several locations being raided.
Prosecutors this month opened a preliminary investigation of Lang and his daughter Caroline on suspicion of tax fraud following the release of documents on Epstein in the US
Lang, who was culture minister under late Socialist president Francois Mitterrand, resigned this month from the Arab World Institute, which he had led since 2013.
He has said he was unaware of Epstein’s crimes despite corresponding with him between 2012 and 2019, 11 years after the financier was convicted of soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. Epstein died in prison by suicide in 2019.
The Institute, which is overseen by France’s foreign ministry, said it could not immediately comment on the police action.
Both Jack and Caroline Lang have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and receiving financial benefits from Epstein. Their lawyer Laurent Merlet told French broadcaster BFMTV this month that “there was no movement of funds.”
Fallout from the release of millions of new documents related to Epstein has rippled through Europe.
On Saturday, Paris prosecutors set up a dedicated team to review the files, coordinating with the financial prosecutor and national police.
The office said it was analizing several potential cases stemming from the Epstein files.
One concerns French diplomat Fabrice Aidan, alleged to have transferred United Nations documents to Epstein.
Aidan, who worked at the UN from July 2006 to April 2013, has rejected the accusations through his lawyer.
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