Ten people are dead and at least a dozen are feared trapped after an auditorium collapsed under heavy snow at a resort in the South Korean city of Gyeongju.
As many as 450 students are believed to have been attending a concert in the building when the roof caved in on Monday night.
Police officials quoted by the Yonhap news agency say 10 people have been confirmed killed and at least a dozen are thought to still be trapped inside the building, down from around 50 earlier in the evening.
Nine of the dead were college students whilst the 10th fatality was believed to be a party organiser, police said. Three students and 11 party organisers remained unaccounted for.
A spokesman for the local fire service had earlier told AFP by telephone that 73 people were injured, 15 of them seriously.
Rescue workers were still searching the collapsed structure, he said.
Yonhap reported that police feared the toll could rise, with around 400 rescuers on the scene.
The collapse appeared to have been caused by heavy snow which had piled up on the roof of the auditorium.
"The ceiling came crashing down at the front near the stage," one student told the YTN news channel.
"Then pandemonium broke out and everyone started rushing towards the exits, shouting and screaming," he added.
Footage broadcast on YTN showed fire officials using torchlights to search for people inside the building, its roof a mass of twisted metal.
Pictures from the Yonhap news agency showed injured students being carried away on stretchers from the largely metallic structure that appeared to have buckled in on itself.
The auditorium was part of the Mauna Ocean Resort, which had been hosting a freshman orientation event for close to 1000 students from a foreign language college in the southern city of Busan.
The resort was in an area that has experienced exceptionally heavy snowfall, with more than 50cm falling in the last week.
Fire officials told Yonhap they had difficulty reaching the resort which is high up a mountain, adding that fresh snow was falling on Monday night.
