SEOUL -- Samsung Electronics apologized for a gas leak at its semiconductor factory that left a 24-year-old worker dead and two others hospitalized as an initial police probe discovered a ruptured pipe at an underground carbon dioxide storage room.
The three from a fire safety maintenance company were found lying unconscious Tuesday in the basement of a production line in Samsung's semiconductor factory in the southern city of Yongin.
"I sincerely apologize to the workers and their families," Samsung's device solution division head Kim Ki-nam said, adding his company would conduct a thorough investigation to find the exact cause of the accident.
In its initial investigation, police blamed the poisoning of carbon dioxide stored at tanks in the basement. In a similar accident at a Samsung research center in 2014, one worker died after inhaling carbon dioxide that leaked due to the malfunctioning of a firefighting facility in the basement.