Key Points
- Rescue workers in South Korea are struggling to reach more than 10 cars trapped in a 430-metre underground tunnel.
- As of Sunday, seven bodies have been recovered from the tunnel and divers were searching for more victims.
- South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has held an emergency meeting on the government's response to the flooding
Rescue workers in South Korea are struggling to reach more than 10 cars trapped in a 430-metre underground tunnel in Cheongju in the central North Chungcheong province.
The tunnel was inundated on Saturday morning after floodwaters swept in too quickly for the people inside to escape, according to the Yonhap news agency.
As of Sunday, seven bodies have been recovered from the tunnel and divers were working around the clock searching for more victims, the interior ministry said.
Parents wait anxiously for news of loved ones
"I have no hope but I can't leave," a parent of one of those missing in the tunnel told Yonhap news agency.
"My heart wrenches thinking how painful it must have been for my son in the cold water."
Images broadcast on local television showed a torrential stream of water from a nearby river that had burst its banks flooding into the tunnel, as rescue workers struggled to use boats to get to people inside.
As of Sunday, seven bodies have been recovered from a tunnel in the central North Chungcheong province, and divers were working around the clock searching for more victims, the interior ministry said. Credit: AP
Death toll so far at 33, with 10 others missing
The interior ministry reported that 33 people had been killed and another 10 were missing in the heavy downpours, mostly buried by landslides or after falling into a flooded reservoir.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is currently on an overseas trip, held an emergency meeting with his aides on the government's response to the heavy rains and flooding, his office said.
Earlier, he ordered Prime Minister Han Duck-soo to mobilise all available resources to minimise casualties.
The majority of the casualties — including 17 of the dead and nine of the missing — were from North Gyeongsang province, and were largely due to massive landslides in the mountainous area that engulfed houses with people inside.
Houses collapsed from a landslide caused by heavy rain are seen in Yecheon, South Korea on Sunday, 16 July 2023. Credit: Yun Kwan-shick / AP
More rain is forecast through Wednesday, and the Korea Meteorological Administration has warned the weather conditions pose a "grave" danger.
South Korea is regularly hit by flooding during the summer monsoon period, but the country is typically well-prepared and the death toll is usually relatively low.
Scientists say climate change has made weather events around the world more extreme and more frequent.
South Korea endured record-breaking rains and flooding last year, which left more than 11 people dead.
They included three people who died trapped in a Seoul basement apartment of the kind that became internationally known because of the Oscar-winning Korean film "Parasite".
The government said at the time that the 2022 flooding was the heaviest rainfall since Seoul weather records began 115 years ago, blaming climate change for the extreme weather.
