The number of victims has risen further in South Korea. At least 33 people have died and ten are missing after heavy rains caused flooding and mudslides across the country, authorities said Sunday, as rescuers actively search for people trapped in a flooded underground tunnel.
South Korea is in the midst of the summer monsoon and heavy rains have been falling for the past four days, causing widespread flooding and landslides, as well as a large dam overflowing.
The Interior Ministry said 33 people were killed and 10 others missing as a result of the torrential rains, most of whom were buried by landslides or fell into a flooded reservoir.
Seven bodies found in tunnel
Rescuers are working to rescue about 15 cars trapped in a 430-meter-long underground tunnel in Cheongju, North Chungcheong province, the ministry said.
According to the Yonhap news agency, the tunnel was submerged on Saturday morning after a flash flood. By Sunday, seven bodies had been recovered from the tunnel and divers were taking turns night and day searching for other victims, according to the Interior Ministry.
“I have no more hope, but I can’t leave,” a relative of one of the victims who disappeared in the tunnel told Yonhap. “It breaks my heart to think of the pain my son must have felt in the cold water,” he added.
Footage broadcast on local television shows rushing water from a nearby river overflowing its banks and rushing into the tunnel, with rescuers using boats to reach the victims inside.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, currently on a foreign trip, held an emergency meeting with his aides to discuss the government’s response to severe weather and flooding, his office said. He had previously ordered Prime Minister Han Duck-soo to mobilize all available resources to keep casualties to a minimum.
More rain expected on Wednesday
Most of the victims, including 17 dead and nine missing, are from North Gyeongsang province, a mountainous region particularly hard hit by landslides that engulfed houses and trapped their occupants inside.
Some of the missing people were swept away by a flooded river in North Gyeongsang province, the ministry said.
More rain is forecast through Wednesday, with the Korea Meteorological Administration warning that weather conditions pose a “serious” danger.
South Korea is regularly hit by flooding during the summer monsoon, but the country is generally well prepared and the number of casualties remains relatively low. Last year, the country also experienced heavy rains and floods, which killed 11 people.
A victim also in Japan
The government then said the 2022 rains were the heaviest since weather records began in Seoul 115 years ago, blaming the extremes on climate change.
Torrential rains also claimed a casualty in Japan, where a man was found dead on Sunday in a flooded car in the north of the country. Seven people had also lost their lives last week in the southwest of the country due to bad weather.
Since last weekend, a wide swath of rainfall has dumped record amounts of rain in various parts of Japan, triggering river overflows and landslides. The rainy front moved gradually from the southwest of the country to the north.
Source: BFM TV
