The Gwangju Metropolitan Government has suspended all construction projects by HDC Hyundai Development Company after a second building under construction by the developer collapsed in less than a year.  

The anti-disaster authorities in the southwestern city made the decision during an emergency meeting presided over by Gwangju Mayor Lee Yong-seop on Wednesday. 

The exterior walls of a Hyundai IPark apartment building under construction in Hwajeong-dong collapsed on Tuesday. Six workers at the site remain missing. 

The contractor came under fire last June, when a building project it was overseeing in Hak-dong collapsed, killing nine people and injuring eight others.

Park Nam-eon, a senior official of the municipal disaster and safety countermeasures headquarters, said it is regrettable that a similar disaster happened just 217 days later and apologized to the citizens. 

While promising all-out efforts to search for the six workers, he also pledged thorough efforts to determine the cause of the collapse, adding that those responsible will be held accountable legally and administratively.