“At least seven people have died in the Seoul metropolitan area…seven others are missing due to heavy rain at 7:30 a.m. this morning,” an interior ministry official told AFP. from Seoul.
Authorities warned of more rain as rescue workers tried to clear the carcasses of flooded cars from the streets of Seoul, AFP journalists said.
The torrential rains that began on Monday are the heaviest in South Korea for 80 years, according to the Yonhap news agency.
Dramatic footage shared Monday night on social media showed people wading through waist-deep water, overflowing subway stations and half-submerged cars in Seoul’s upscale Gangnam district.
The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) has urged South Koreans to “watch out for heavy rain, gusts, as well as thunder and lightning in the central region” in the coming days.
Up to 300 millimeters of additional rain was forecast for the central region, including Seoul, through Thursday, the same source detailed.
According to local media, three people living in a “banjiha” – cramped basement apartments like the one where Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” film family resides – including a teenager, died in their apartment by drowning.
President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered government officials to evacuate residents from at-risk areas and encouraged companies to allow their employees to work flexible hours on Tuesday morning.
“Nothing is more precious than life and safety. The government will carefully handle the heavy rain situation,” he wrote on his Facebook account.
Daily life in South Korea was still heavily disrupted on Tuesday, with many roads and tunnels closed for safety reasons, Yonhap reported.
