- At least 22 people have died and 14 more are missing in South Korea after days of torrential rain, according to officials, who have also forced thousands of people to leave their homes.
- Most of them were buried by landslides or drowned after plunging into a flooded reservoir, according to the interior ministry.
- North Gyeongsang province suffered the most of the casualties, with 16 fatalities and 9 missing, largely as a result of large-scale landslides in the hilly region that buried homes with occupants inside. One emergency responder told the Yonhap News Agency that “entire houses were swept away” in the worst-hit districts.
- Early on Saturday 15th July, the Goesan Dam started to overflow and submerge surrounding low-lying towns, forcing more than 6,400 residents of the central county of Goesan to leave, according to the interior ministry. According to the ministry, some of the missing people were swept away when a river backed up in North Gyeongsang province.
- The interior ministry also reported that rescuers were having difficulty getting to 19 cars that were stranded in a 1,410-foot (430 meters) subterranean tunnel in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province.
- Footage shown on local news showed rescuers struggling to use boats to reach people inside the tunnel as a torrential stream of water from a neighboring river that had overflowed its banks flooded into the structure.
- The overall number of deaths is also expected to rise as local government agencies assess the damage nationwide, Yonhap said.
- A “severe” danger is posed by the weather, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration, which issued heavy rain warnings and said further rain was expected through next week’s Wednesday.
- South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo urged officials to preempt river overflows and landslides, and requested support for rescue operations from the defence ministry.
