Fire officials said that eight people were seriously injured in the collapse in Gwangju.

Local fire department officials said that a five-story building in South Korea that was being demolished suddenly collapsed on a bus, causing at least nine deaths and eight serious injuries.

Officials at the Gwangju Fire and Safety Headquarters said the accident occurred on Wednesday afternoon when the bus stopped on the street next to the demolition site in Gwangju, about 270 kilometers (168 miles) southwest of the capital Seoul.

Dramatic TV pictures showed that the bus with 17 people was buried in debris and was inundated by huge dust when the structure collapsed.

Yang Yiji, who runs a shop across the road from the construction site, said that he ran outside and was awakened by the loud noise, which made him feel as if the earth was shaking.

He told Yonhap News Agency: “I can’t see the road clearly, as if it is covered by thick fog.” “I checked the closed-circuit television and found that the building collapsed on a bus.”

Officials said the cause of the collapse is not yet known and the police are investigating.

All workers at the demolition site were evacuated before the collapse.

After multiple disasters, South Korea has been taking measures to improve its infrastructure safety record.

The collapse of a department store in 1995, killing more than 500 people, was the worst disaster in the country during peacetime. A bridge collapsed the previous year, killing 49 people.