World Courant
SEOUL – Rescuers have recovered the final physique and have ended searches at a flooded underpass in South Korea, the place greater than a dozen folks have died in an incident that’s now the topic of a number of official inquiries.
South Korea is on the peak of its summer time monsoon season and days of torrential rain have led to widespread flooding and landslides, with rivers overflowing and reservoirs and dams overflowing. Extra rain is predicted within the coming days.
The inside ministry mentioned 41 folks had been killed and 9 extra had been lacking throughout the nation from the torrential downpours, most buried by landslides or falling right into a flooded reservoir.
Search and rescue operations within the 430-meter tunnel in Cheongju, North Chungcheong province, ended late Monday after rescuers recovered the final physique, it mentioned.
The tunnel was flooded on the morning of July 15 after water rushed in too quick for the automobiles inside to flee.
A complete of 17 automobiles, together with a bus, had been trapped and 14 folks had been killed, the inside ministry mentioned.
The tunnel stays closed for added inspections as a part of the investigation into the reason for the deadly incident, it added.
On Monday, the South Korean authorities and police launched separate investigations into the tunnel’s flooding, with President Yoon Suk-yeol blaming mismanagement of hazard zones for the lack of life.
The vast majority of the country-wide casualties — together with 19 of these killed and eight of these lacking — got here from North Gyeongsang province and had been largely on account of large landslides within the mountainous area that engulfed homes stuffed with folks.
The Korea Meteorological Administration forecast extra heavy rain by Wednesday and urged the general public “to not go exterior.”
South Korea is usually hit by floods through the summer time monsoon interval, however the nation is often effectively ready and the dying toll is often comparatively low.
Scientists say local weather change has made climate occasions around the globe extra excessive and frequent.
South Korea endured record-breaking rainfall and flooding in 2022, killing greater than 11 folks.
They included three individuals who died whereas trapped in a basement house in Seoul, of the type made internationally identified by the Oscar-winning Korean movie Parasite.
The federal government on the time mentioned the 2022 floods had been the heaviest rainfall since Seoul climate information started 115 years in the past, and blamed local weather change for the acute climate. AFP
Rescue employees pull final physique from flooded South Korean tunnel
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