The foreign ministry has asked the Brazilian police for a thorough investigation into the deaths of five South Korean children at a construction site in the country.

The ministry on Friday confirmed that five children of South Korean nationality died in a landslide near a purification plant construction site in the northeastern state of Bahia on April 29.

The ministry confirmed that consulate officials had been dispatched to the site to investigate the situation soon after the accident. They have since attended a funeral service to console the bereaved families.

The Korean Embassy in Brazil explained that the results of the locally conducted autopsy showed that the cause of death was asphyxiation resulting from the landslide, but added that it would take a month for the official cause to be released.