S Korea arsonist kills 5 neighbours as they flee fire

Five people were killed and more than a dozen others injured by a South Korean man who set his apartment on fire and stabbed his neighbours as they tried to flee the flames, police said yesterday.

Police said the 42-year-old started the fire in the early hours of yesterday morning in the southern city of Jinju, and waited on the second floor of the building to attack people running downstairs from the blaze.

The youngest of the five victims stabbed to death was a 12-year-old girl.

An unnamed resident told Yonhap news agency that he initially tried to leave the building after hearing the fire alarm but went back to his apartment after seeing “lots of blood” in the hall.