A landslide triggered by torrential rain killed at least one person in South Korea, its National Fire Agency said yesterday.
Three people were also missing after the landslide buried two houses in a village in southern Sancheong County, officials said, as heavy rain continued to pound the country.
“At least three people have been reported missing, and we have recovered one body,” an official at the Sancheong County fire station said.
Photo: AFP
Sancheong County told all residents yesterday to “evacuate immediately to a safe area.”
The county has a population of about 34,000 people.
South Korea typically experiences monsoon rains in July, but the country’s southern regions saw some of the heaviest hourly downpours on record this week, official weather data showed.
By 6am yesterday, 2,816 people were still out of their homes from a total of more than 7,000 evacuated during the prior days of heavy rain, in which four have died and two are missing, the South Korean Ministry of the Interior and Safety said.
Rain is to last until tomorrow in some areas, weather officials said, urging extreme caution against the risk of landslides and flooding, with warnings across most of the nation.
Rainfall since Wednesday reached a record of more than 500mm at Seosan, in the South Chungcheong province south of the capital, Seoul, the ministry said.
Elsewhere in the province, cows were desperately trying to keep their heads above water after sheds and stables flooded.
The tally of water-damaged structures stood at more than 641 buildings, 388 roads and 59 farms, the ministry said.
Rains were also expected in neighboring North Korea.
From today to Tuesday, 150mm to 200mm of rain could fall in some northern areas, rising to 300mm in some remote regions, the Korea Meteorological Administration said, state newspaper Rodong Sinmun reported.
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
RSS