At least 37 people have died and nine are missing due to torrential rains in South Korea, according to a new balance sheet released by authorities this Sunday.
The previous balance showed 33 dead and ten missing. The number of fatalities is expected to rise, according to authorities, at a time when rescuers search for people trapped in a flooded underground tunnel.
In four days, torrential rain during the summer monsoon flooded many regions of the country.
Most casualties were recorded in North Gyeongsang province, where massive landslides in mountainous areas buried residential homes.
Some of the disappeared were “swept away” by the water when a river flooded in this region.
In the hardest-hit areas, “entire houses were swept away,” a rescue worker told South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
There are thousands of people displaced, road and power failures in different regions of the country.
Rescue workers clear a 430-meter tunnel in Cheongju, North Chungcheong province, to try to free victims who may be trapped. The tunnel flooded this Saturday and the speed of the water prevented the vehicles from escaping inside.
Five people have already been removed from a bus that was in the tunnel, as well as nine dead.
Source: DN
