Death toll from shooting range fire in Busan rises to 12

BUSAN, Nov. 22 (Yonhap) -- A Japanese tourist died of heart failure on Sunday
after being treated for severe burns from a blaze at an indoor shooting range in
Busan, bringing the incident's death toll to 12, police said.
Kazunobu Nakao, 37, died around 5:20 a.m. at Hana Hospital. He has been at the
hospital since the Nov. 14 blaze, which has so far claimed eight Japanese and
four South Korean lives.
At the hospital, four more people -- three Japanese tourists and one South Korean
-- are being treated for burns. Three of the four, excluding Japanese tourist
Masaru Kasahara, are in critical condition, police said.
The Japanese people were visiting the shooting range on a group tour.
On Wednesday, investigators said the fire appeared to have started from an
explosion in the shooting booths area deep inside the range.
"After carrying out three extensive on-site investigations, we believe that there
was a huge blast inside the range, and that was the point of the ignition," Kim
Young-shik, chief investigator of the incident, said in a press briefing.
But the exact cause of the explosion is still unknown, Kim said.
Police initially said the fire likely started from a sofa in a lounge near the
entrance to the range.
The bodies of the Japanese victims were transferred to Japan on Thursday, police
said.
(END)