ISLAMABAD
\nRescuers battled to reach people trapped in a flooded tunnel on Sunday in South Korea, where at least 33 people have died and 10 are missing after heavy rains caused flooding and landslides.
\nSouth Korea is at the peak of its summer monsoon season, and there has been heavy rainfall for the last four days, causing a major dam to overflow.
\nThe 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.
\nRescue workers were still struggling to reach more than 10 cars trapped in a 430-metre underground tunnel in Cheongju, North Chungcheong province, the ministry said.
\nThe tunnel was inundated on Saturday morning after floodwaters swept in too quickly for the people inside to escape, according to the yonhap news agency.
\nAs 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. \u201cI have no hope but I can\u2019t leave,\u201d a parent of one of those missing in the tunnel told Yonhap.
\n\u201cMy heart wrenches thinking how painful it must have been for my son in the cold water.\u201d 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.
\nSouth Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is currently on an overseas trip, held an emergency meeting with his aides on the government\u2019s response to the heavy rains and flooding, his office said.
\nEarlier, he ordered Prime Minister Han Duck-soo to mobilise all available resources to minimise casualties.
\nThe majority of the casualties \u2014 including 17 of the dead and nine of the missing \u2014 were from North Gyeongsang province, and were largely due to massive landslides in the mountainous area that engulfed houses with people inside.
\nSome of the people who have been reported missing were swept away when a river overflowed in the province, the interior ministry said.
\nMore rain is forecast through Wednesday, and the Korea Meteorological Administration has warned the weather conditions pose a \u201cgrave\u201d danger.
\nSouth 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.
\nScientists say climate change has made weather events around the world more extreme and more frequent.
\nSouth Korea endured record-breaking rains and flooding last year, which left more than 11 people dead.
\nThey 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 \u201cParasite\u201d.
\nThe 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD Rescuers battled to reach people trapped in a flooded tunnel on Sunday in South Korea, where at least 33 people have died and 10 are missing after heavy rains caused flooding and landslides. South Korea is at the peak of its summer monsoon season, and there has been heavy rainfall for the last four […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343526,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-343510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n