At least 14 dead in ‘once-in-a-century' storms in South Korea
The country's southern regions have received up to 600-800 millimetres of rain since Wednesday, some of the heaviest hourly rainfall on record.
Torrential downpours hit Gapyeong, a resort town 70km east of Seoul on early Sunday, leaving at least two dead and four missing. One person was found dead after being swept away by the floods, and another was killed after their house collapsed because of the heavy rainfall.
There are concerns that the death toll could continue to rise, with 12 people still missing according to the Ministry of the Interior and the Safety and National Fire Agency on Sunday.
Over 2,000 public buildings have been damaged across the country, according to the ministry, with reports of damage to farmland and the death of livestock. Communication remains unstable in the areas hit by flooding, and many sites remain inaccessible, according to local reports.
Footage shows heavy rainfall in the south of the country, with submerged vehicles, roads blocked by water, people wading through the streets and the extensive damage to farmland.
In response to the floods, Lee Jae-myung, South Korea's president, ordered on Sunday for the areas that were hit the hardest by the extreme weather to be designated as special disaster zones, and the government has set up a multi-agency recovery effort.
The majority of deaths have occurred in the southern county of Sancheong, with eight people killed and six others unaccounted for in the town following landslides, flash floods and the collapse of houses after experiencing almost 800 millimetres of rainfall since Wednesday.
Earlier this week, three people were found dead in a flooded car, and a person was also killed after their car was buried by soil and concrete after an overpass collapsed in Osan, south of Seoul.
Across the region, nearly 10,000 people have evacuated their homes since Wednesday, while more than 41,000 households have temporarily lost power, the BBC reports.
South Korea also endured heavy rain and flooding in 2022, killing at least 11 people.
The rain has mostly stopped in the worst-affected southern and central areas, with the rainfall moving north overnight and is expected to last until Monday in some areas, before a heatwave next week.
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