A 61-year-old man on Sunday jumped from a government building in downtown Seoul after setting fire to an office room, police said. 

According to the police, the man, identified only by his family name Kim, entered the government main building in the Gwanghwamun district in the heart of Seoul at 1:30 p.m. and passed through the security line with a fake government ID card. 

He then went into a room on the 18th floor, set fire to desks, chairs and documents in the office using the gasoline he was carrying, and jumped from the building, said the police. 

He was taken to a nearby hospital, but was declared dead, they added. 

The fire was extinguished in six minutes by officials who were working in the room at the time. Investigators said Kim was unlikely a government official.
 

They found a pharmacy bag with pills for a mental disorder and Kim had long received treatment for depression, said the police. They are looking for more details of the incident and trying to verify his identification. (Yonhap News)