At least 41 people have been killed and more than 70 others injured after fire broke out in a South Korean hospital, officials said.

According to the official, the death toll is likely to rise.

The Yonhap news agency reports that the fire began at about 7.30am local time in an emergency room on the first floor of Sejong hospital in Miryang. Firefighters took about three hours to bring the blaze under control.

“Around 200 patients were inside the building and adjoining nursing home” when the blaze began, says the BBC. According to local officials, most of the victims “appear to have died from inhaling toxic gas” which spread throughout the hospital and nursing home.

Miryang fire chief Choi Man-woo told local media that “two nurses said they had seen fire suddenly erupting in the emergency room”, but the cause is yet to be determined.

It comes a month after another deadly blaze in South Korea killed 29 people on 21 December when a gym caught fire in in the city of Jecheon.