PYEONGCHANG, South Korea -- A South Korean soldier who was working on transportation operations for next month's PyeongChang Winter Olympics has died in an accident at his quarters, the Army and the games' organizing committee said Tuesday.
The enlisted Army corporal died inside a public shower room by his quarters in PyeongChang, the main host city of the Olympics, at 10:35 p.m. Monday, according to the PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic & Paralympic Games.
The soldier, whose name was not made public, reportedly slipped while entering the shower room and slammed into a glass door. He was injured by the shattered glass and was taken to a nearby hospital but died during treatment, according to officials.
(Yonhap)
The military is looking into the exact cause of the accident.
"The organizing committee will cooperate with the military in its investigation and map out plans, such as upgrades of facilities, to prevent further accidents," the committee said in a statement.
Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympics Committee who arrived in South Korea earlier in the day, expressed words of condolences to the late soldier.
"I learned with great sadness on the plane coming over here about the tragic death of the member of the workforce," Bach told reporters upon arriving at PyeongChang.
The IOC president added, "I would like to express our sincere condolences and all our sympathy to his family and friends, to POCOG, to everybody who knew him." (Yonhap)
