14 die, thousands flee as heavy rains lash S. Korea
A village hit by a landslide amid heavy rain in Juksan-myeon, South Korea, on Tuesday. Torrential rains pounded the country’s central region this week killing at least 14 people.
Fourteen people were killed and more than 1,000 people forced from their homes as 42 consecutive days of rain — South Korea’s longest monsoon in seven years — triggered floods and landslides, authorities said on Tuesday.
Heavy rain, which has also battered China, Thailand, Myanmar and India in recent days, inundated farmland and flooded parts of major highways and bridges in the capital, Seoul.
The victims included three New Zealanders from the same family, who were found dead on Monday after a landslide hit vacation cottages in Gapyeong county, northeast of Seoul.
They were a woman believed to be 65, her 36-year-old daughter and her 3-year-old grandson, a Gapyeong police official said.
The New Zealand foreign ministry said it was aware of the deaths and was providing consular assistance. It did not elaborate.
President Moon Jae-in expressed concern for the impact of 42 days of rain, which weather officials said was the longest such stretch since 2013, on public sector emergency workers already battling the coronavirus pandemic.
He urged “all-out efforts to prevent further loss of life,” such as action to avert landslides and evacuate people, even in cases of little apparent danger.
Most of the flooded roads and bridges along the Han River in Seoul that had backed up traffic and damaged infrastructure were back in operation yesterday, the Yonhap news agency reported.
