This photo shows a Hwaseong motel destroyed by a fire in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province provided by the Gyeonggi Fire and Disaster Headquarters, Nov. 26. Yonhap

Eighteen people were injured after a fire broke out at a motel in Hwaseong, 44 kilometers south of Seoul, on Monday night, a local fire station said Tuesday.

The four-story, 30-room motel in Hwaseong's Bongdam district was engulfed in flames shortly after 10 p.m. Monday before being extinguished by nearly 100 firefighters in about 30 minutes, the station said.

A guest was found in a state of cardiac arrest inside a second-floor room but regained consciousness at a hospital later, while two other people were classified as seriously injured, it noted. In addition, 15 people suffered minor injuries, including smoke inhalation.

Police and fire authorities plan to determine the cause of the fire, which reportedly started at the first-floor counter. (Yonhap)