SEOUL - South Korea's government online services were halted after a fire in the national data center, Yonhap news agency said Saturday.

The fire broke out at about 8:20 pm local time on Friday (1120 GMT) at the National Information Resources Service in the central city of Daejeon.

It was caused by a lithium-ion battery explosion in a computer room on the building's fifth floor.

The fire led to the suspended operation of 647 government online services and systems.

Almost 10 hours after the outbreak, the main blaze of the fire was brought under control.

READ MORE: Emergency department: Dozens rescued in South Korea building fire

Firefighters were still working to ventilate and cool down the building, so it was forecast to take a long time to restore the affected services.