Actor Yoon Dae-yeol stops gas leaking after Incheon restaurant explosion

South Korean actor Yoon Dae-yeol shut off two gas cylinders after a restaurant explosion in Incheon, west of Seoul, preventing further damage, police said.

Yoon, 48, was out for a walk in the Majeon-dong neighborhood of Incheon's Geomdan District when the explosion hit a ground-floor restaurant at around 8:45 a.m. on Oct. 27, The Korea Herald reported, citing the Incheon Seobu Police Station.

Finding the valves open on two liquefied petroleum gas cylinders outside the restaurant, he closed them and reported the blast to police.

Had the gas kept leaking, the danger could have continued, a police official said.

"I just took action because I knew where the gas cylinders were. I didn't do anything remarkable," Yoon, who lives nearby, told Yonhap News Agency by phone. "There were already many other people at the scene stopping the injured from bleeding or calling for help."

In a social media post on Oct. 28, Yoon wrote that he had closed the gas cylinders behind the building because he was worried about secondary damage.

"I am so sorry and embarrassed to have ended up in the media against my will," he wrote, adding that he feared the attention could distract from what the accident was really about.

"Nothing about this accident has been resolved yet, and no one has recovered," he wrote, wishing those hurt and their families a swift recovery in body and mind.

Actor Yoon Dae-yeol in a recording booth. Photo courtesy of Yoon Dae-yeol

Workers had been tearing out the restaurant's interior when the blast happened. Police suspect the work went ahead without the gas valve being closed and are investigating the exact circumstances.

The four injured, three workers and the restaurant's owner, are all in their 60s. They suffered burns to the face and other parts of the body and are being treated in hospital.

Geomdan District said one of the four suffered a facial fracture as well as burns, while the other three had minor injuries.

Yoon worked mainly in theater before making his screen debut in 2014 in "Kundo: Age of the Rampant." He has since had roles in "Asura: The City of Madness," "The Outlaws," "Hunt" and "12.12: The Day," South Korea's highest-grossing film of 2023.