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Floods in South Korea
Photo: KIM HONG-JI / REUTERS
It's raining heavily in South Korea. As a result, the death toll has risen to at least 40. As South Korean media reported, more than ten thousand residents had to be evacuated from their homes to safety. According to the authorities, the number of victims could rise even further.
As of Monday noon (local time), rescue workers had recovered 13 bodies from a tunnel in the Central Korean city of Osong. The underpass, in which there were around 15 vehicles, was flooded within a few minutes on Saturday.
Massive rainfall in South Korea has continued since the end of last week. They have triggered several landslides, as well as temporary power outages.
The situation is likely to remain tense. The weather office announced heavy rain for large parts of the country for Tuesday. The rainfall since Thursday is unusually abundant even for the summer rainy season on the Korean Peninsula.
Seoul already hit by heavy rainfall in 2022
In the city of Cheongju in the center of the country, at least nine people drowned in a road tunnel over the weekend. After a dam burst on a nearby river, masses of water had flowed into the tunnel. According to the fire brigade, there were around 15 vehicles there at the time, including a bus. Even before the accident, the Ministry of the Interior had put the number of dead recovered after the floods at 26.
Nationwide, the railway suspended large parts of the train traffic, as routes were affected by flooding, landslides and falling rocks. In the northern province of Chungcheong, the water overflowed the dam wall of the Goesan Dam.
Last year, Seoul was hit by the heaviest rainfall in 115 years. After numerous apartments in the capital were under water at the time, the government had announced that it would better arm the country against such weather conditions.
bam/dpa/Reuters