[Yonhap Photo]
SEOUL -- Three high school students were found dead and seven others remained unconscious at hospitals after a barbeque party in a pension during a trip that followed a college entrance exam. Firefighters detected a high concentration of carbon monoxide in the rooms.
The boys from Daeseong High School in Seoul were on a field trip authorized by their parents after finishing their state-administrated scholastic aptitude test for university entrance. They were found unconscious at around 1:15 p.m. (0415 GMT) Tuesday by the pension owner in the eastern resort port city of Gangneung.
When firefighters arrived in the two-story pension, they detected the carbon monoxide density of 155ppm (parts per million), well above the ordinary level of 20ppm. The students were seen vomiting and foaming at the mouth. Two are in critical condition and received hyperbaric oxygen treatment.
Kim Jin-bok, the police station chief in Gangneung, said the students had arrived in the pension Monday for a three-day trip and had a barbeque party in the garden the previous night.
"There is no possibility of murder or suicide," he told reporters, adding investigators are checking a boiler room to determine if there was a gas leakage.
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