SEOUL: At least 22 people have died and 14 are missing after heavy rain caused flooding and landslides in South Korea, officials said on Saturday (Jul 15), with thousands more ordered to evacuate their homes.
South Korea is at the peak of its summer monsoon season and there has been heavy rainfall for the last three days, triggering widespread flooding and landslides, and causing a major dam to overflow.
The interior ministry reported that 22 people had been killed and another 14 were missing in the heavy downpours, mostly buried by landslides or after falling into a flooded reservoir.
The majority of the casualties – including 16 dead and nine missing – were from North Gyeongsang province, largely due to massive landslides in the mountainous area that engulfed houses with people inside.
In the most severely affected areas, “entire houses were swept away whole”, one emergency responder told the Yonhap News Agency.
More than 6,400 residents in the central county of Goesan were ordered to evacuate early Saturday as the Goesan Dam began overflowing and submerging low-lying villages nearby, the interior ministry said.
Some of the people who have been reported missing were swept away when a river overflowed in North Gyeongsang province, the ministry said.
FLOODED TUNNEL
Rescue workers were battling to reach about 19 cars trapped in a 430m long underground tunnel in Cheongju, North Chungcheong province, according to the interior ministry.
One person was found dead, and nine people were rescued from a bus after flash flooding swept through the tunnel too quickly for people to escape, Yonhap reported.