The fire began in Icheon city at 01:32 p.m. local time (04:32 GMT) on Wednesday and was extinguished five hours later. The previous reports indicated that 25 people were killed and seven more were injured in the fire.
"The death toll from the fire, which occurred this afternoon in Moga-myeon township of Icheon city, Gyeonggi province, is 37 people. There will probably be more victims," the authorities said, as quoted by The Chosun Ilbo newspaper.
According to the newspaper, eight of those ten injured are currently in critical condition.
Chung Sye-kyun, the South Korean prime minister, had arrived in the site of the blaze, the media said.
