The police are seeking arrest warrants for two people in their investigation into the expressway noise-barrier tunnel fire in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province last December that killed five people and injured dozens of others.

The Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency on Monday filed to arrest the driver of a five-ton claw truck that initially caught fire as well as an official at the Second Seoul-Incheon Linking Highway Company in charge of the control room.

The two have been charged with causing deaths and injuries by occupational and gross negligence.

The National Forensic Service(NFS) earlier notified the police that the source of the combustion appeared to be electrical wires near the exhaust that degraded due to overheating, suggesting negligence by the driver. The truck had previously caught fire in 2020.

The official at the expressway operator's control room is suspected of failing to detect the fire early and immediately take safety-ensuring measures in line with a fire manual, which is believed to have caused more casualties.

The police also plan to refer to the prosecution cases involving three others, including the head of the company that owns the truck, on the same charges.