(SEOUL) At least 33 people have died and ten are missing after heavy rains caused flooding and landslides in South Korea, authorities said on Sunday, as rescuers actively searched for people trapped in a flooded underground tunnel.
South Korea is in the middle of the summer monsoon and heavy rains have been falling for the past four days, causing widespread flooding and landslides, as well as the overflow of a major dam.
The Interior Ministry said 33 people had been killed and ten others missing as a result of the torrential rains, most of whom had been buried by landslides or had fallen into a flooded reservoir.
Rescuers are working to reach about 15 cars stuck 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.
YONHAP PHOTO VIA REUTERS
People take part in a search and rescue operation following a landslide caused by torrential rains in Yecheon on July 15.
By Sunday, seven bodies had been recovered from the tunnel and divers were taking turns day and night to search for other victims, according to the Interior Ministry.
“I have no more hope but I can’t leave,” the relative of one of the victims who disappeared in the tunnel told Yonhap. “My heart breaks thinking of the pain my son must have felt in the cold water,” he added.
Footage broadcast by local television shows a torrent of water from a nearby river bursting its banks and rushing into the tunnel, with rescuers using boats to reach the victims inside.
“Serious” danger
PHOTO YONHAP VIA AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Rescuers search for survivors on a flooded road leading to an underground tunnel where 19 cars were trapped by floodwaters after heavy rains on July 15 in Cheongju.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, currently on an overseas trip, held an emergency meeting with his aides to discuss the government’s response to severe weather and flooding, his office said.
Earlier, he ordered Prime Minister Han Duck-soo to mobilize all available resources to keep casualties to a minimum.
The majority of the victims, including 17 dead and nine missing, are from North Gyeongsang province, a mountainous region particularly affected by landslides that engulfed houses and trapped their occupants inside.
Some of the missing people were swept away by an overflowing river in North Gyeongsang Province, the ministry said.
More rain is forecast until Wednesday, and the Korea Meteorological Administration has warned that the weather conditions pose a “serious” danger.
South Korea is regularly affected by floods during the summer monsoon but the country is generally well prepared and the number of victims remains relatively low.
Last year, the country also experienced heavy rains and floods, which killed 11 people.
The government then said the 2022 rainfall was the heaviest since weather records for Seoul began 115 years ago, blaming the extremes on climate change.