Explosion at textile factory kills 5, injures 2

(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with details; ADDS photo)
GUMI, South Korea, Aug. 27 (Yonhap) -- An explosion sparked a fire at a textile factory in southeastern South Korea on Saturday, killing five people and injuring two others, police said.
The apparent accident broke out at around 1:35 p.m. at the laboratory in a three-story factory building of textile company TK Chemical in the industrial city of Gumi, about 200 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
The blaze, which sent black smoke billowing into the sky, gutted the second and third floors of the building.
Seven people were in the building at the time, of whom five were confirmed killed, including deputy laboratory chief Hong Myung-hyuk, 49, police said. Two others injured were taken to hospital with serious burns, they said.
Twenty-six fire trucks and about 110 firefighters brought the blaze under control in about two hours, police said.
Police suspected that experiments involving inflammable chemical substances might have ignited the explosion.