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.
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