A fire at a lithium battery factory near Seoul？ on Monday killed 22 workers, most of them migrant laborers from China, in one of the deadliest blazes in South Korea in years, officials said.

       Officials said rescuers were still searching the building in Hwaseong, 28 miles south of Seoul, for one worker who had been reported missing. They said it was unclear whether the worker had been in the building when the fire broke out.

       ？Two workers were hospitalized with serious injuries. Six others suffered minor injuries.

       Kim Jin-young, an official with the Hwaseong Fire Department, said 102 people had been working in the factory, owned by the battery maker Aricell, when the fire broke out. The 22 victims included 18 migrants？ from China and one from Laos, as well as two South Koreans.

       They were found dead on the 12,500-square-foot second floor of the factory. The floor had two unlocked exit staircases leading outside, but the workers appeared to have been overcome by the flames and toxic smoke before reaching them, Mr. Kim said.

       It took only 15 seconds for the floor to be filled with smoke and flames, said a senior fire official, Jo Seon-ho, during a news briefing Monday.

       After trying in vain to put out the blaze with fire extinguishers, he said, the workers rushed to an area of the floor where there was no exit.

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