6 bodies pulled from flooded tunnel in South Korea as heavy rains cause flash floods and landslides #bodies #pulled #flooded #tunnel #South #Korea #heavy #rains #flash #floods #landslides

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean rescue workers pulled six bodies from vehicles trapped in a flooded tunnel, as days of heavy rain triggered flash floods and landslides and destroyed homes, leaving more than 30 people dead and forcing thousands to evacuate, officials said Sunday.

Nearly 400 rescue workers, including divers, were searching the tunnel in the central city of Cheongju, where around 15 vehicles, including a bus, got swept away in a flash flood Saturday evening, Seo Jeong-il, chief of the city’s fire department, said in a briefing.

Nine survivors were rescued from the tunnel, but the total number of passengers trapped in vehicles wasn’t immediately clear, Seo said.

Rescue workers search for people in houses collapsed folowing a landslide caused by heavy rain in Yecheon, South Korea, Saturday, July 15, 2023. (Gyeongbuk Fire Station Service Headquarters via Yonhap AP)

Days of heavy rain in South Korea have left at least 26 people dead and 10 others missing in landslides, floods and other incidents.

A farmer harvests rice crop in a paddy field on the outskirts of Guwahati, India, Tuesday, June 6, 2023. Experts are warning that rice production across South and Southeast Asia is likely to suffer with the world heading into an El Nino. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

July 7-13, 2023

A farmer harvests rice in India, Kashmiri Muslim women pray as a priest displays a relic believed to be a hair from the beard of the Prophet Mohammad, a honor guard welcomes the Solomon Islands leader to Beijing, and people evacuated due to flooding wait for free food in New Delhi.

In this image provided by Mississippi state Rep. Michael Evans, floodwaters surround a home in Louisville, Miss., Thursday, July 13, 2023. Flash flooding was also reported Thursday in Winston, Choctaw, Neshoba and Noxubee counties. (Mississippi state Rep. Michael Evans via the AP)

More than a half-dozen people were rescued as torrential rain deluged central Mississippi and sent water over roads and into homes and businesses.

People evacuated from the flood plains of the river Yamuna rest in makeshift tents along a street in New Delhi, India, Thursday, July 13, 2023. Residential areas close to the river were flooded, submerging roads, cars and homes, leading to the evacuation of thousands of people from low-lying areas in the country's capital city. More than 100 people were killed this week after record monsoon rains led to massive waterlogging, road caves-in, collapsed homes and gridlocked traffic, officials said Thursday. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Record monsoon rains have killed more than 100 people in northern India over two weeks. Authorities said Thursday that they used helicopters to rescue nearly 300 people who were stranded in the Chandertal area in the worst-hit Himachal Pradesh state.

South Korea has been pounded by heavy rains since July 9. The rainfall had forced nearly 6,000 people to evacuate and left 27,260 households without electricity in the past several days while flooding or destroying dozens of homes, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said.

The bodies pulled from the vehicles in Cheongju weren’t immediately reflected in the ministry’s official death toll, which was 26 as of Sunday morning.

South Korea’s weather agency said some parts of the country will continue to receive heavy rain. President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was visiting Ukraine on Saturday, asked Prime Minister Han Duck-soo to mobilize all available resources to respond to the disaster, according to Yoon’s office.

#bodies #pulled #flooded #tunnel #South #Korea #heavy #rains #flash #floods #landslides