CHEONGJU, South Korea, July 16 (Portal) – The bodies of eight people trapped in a tunnel flooded by torrential rains in central South Korea were recovered on Sunday, authorities and local media said, bringing the country to 35.
Seo Jeong-il, chief of the West Cheongju Fire Station, said an estimated 15 vehicles, including a bus, were submerged in the city’s underpass shortly after a levee of a nearby river was destroyed by downpours on Saturday.
CCTV footage broadcast on local broadcaster MBC showed muddy water pouring into the tunnel as vehicles with their wheels submerged drove by.
“We are concentrating on the search operation because there are probably more people there,” Seo told reporters. “We’re doing our best to complete it today.”
The death toll in the tunnel stands at nine, including a body recovered on Saturday, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported.
The Ministry of Home Affairs and Security said ten people were missing across the country as of 11 a.m. (02:00 GMT) as heavy rains caused landslides and flooding. The evacuation orders affected 7,866 people.
The ministry’s data does not include the people in the flooded tunnel because it was not immediately clear how many people were trapped underwater.
[1/9]Rescue workers are seen near a salvaged electric bus during a search and rescue operation near an underpass flooded by a flooded river due to torrential rain in Cheongju, South Korea July 16, 2023. Portal/Kim Hong-ji
The latest disaster comes despite South Korea’s promise to better prepare for torrential rains after flooding hit Seoul last year, caused by the heaviest rains in 115 years and ravaging basement dwellings in lower-lying neighborhoods, including the largely affluent Gangnam district, flooded.
A survivor of the sunken tunnel said the government should have restricted access to the underpass when flooding was expected, Yonhap reported.
An official from North Chungcheong Province said the dike unexpectedly collapsed before rainfall reached the level required to limit access to the tunnel.
President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is on an overseas tour, called a video-transmitted response meeting and said some regions had failed to take preventive measures against the extreme weather.
Yoon ordered Premier Han Duck-soo to mobilize all available resources to minimize casualties and urged the weather bureau to release forecasts quickly as more heavy rains are expected in the coming days, his office said.
The Korea Meteorological Administration said the country’s central and southern parts could receive up to 300 millimeters (12 inches) of additional rain through Tuesday.
While heavy rains are common in South Korea in summer, there has been a sharp increase in torrential rains in recent years.
Korea Railroad Corp has halted all slow trains and some high-speed trains since Saturday over safety concerns over landslides, track flooding and falling rocks.
Reporting by Do Gyun Kim, Daewoung Kim and Hongji Kim in Cheongju and Soo-hyang Choi in Seoul; Edited by Diane Craft, Michael Perry and Jamie Freed
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