At least nine people have died and 15 others are missing after a fire at a lithium battery factory near South Korea’s capital, officials said.

The fire at the factory in Hwaseong city, just south of Seoul, was initially found to have killed one person and injured four others, two of them critically.

Rescue workers later retrieved eight additional bodies from the factory, increasing the death toll to nine, fire official Kim Jin-young told a televised briefing.

Mr Kim earlier said most of the missing people were foreign nationals, including Chinese citizens.

He said the mobile phone signals of the missing people were tracked to the second floor of the factory.

South Korean media reported that much of the blaze has been put out. The exact cause of the fire was not immediately known.

Mr Kim said a total of 102 people were working at the factory before the fire occurred.