Taiwan golf ball factory fire kills nine

At least nine people were killed over the weekend in a fire at a golf ball factory in southern Taiwan, including four firefighters who perished in an explosion, officials reported on Monday.

The fire, which began on Friday evening and raged throughout the night, also injured more than a hundred people, the majority of whom were factory workers in the county of Pingtung, according to the local government.

A county official stated that additional testing was necessary to confirm the identity of some body fragments discovered at the crime scene. As a result, one person was still listed as missing.

President Tsai Ing-wen and other top officials visited the scene on Saturday to express their condolences to the families of the victims and to pledge an investigation into the cause of the fire.

An official with the Pingtung Fire Department told local media that chemical peroxide stored within the factory may have been the cause of the one large explosion and several smaller ones.

A portion of the factory's roof collapsed as a result of the explosions, trapping several individuals inside.