Heavy rainfall for five consecutive days has left at least 16 people dead across South Korea and another 10 missing.
Two people died and as many went missing in the resort town of Gapyeong on Sunday after a landslide engulfed houses and flooding swept away vehicles.
The interior ministry said eight people were discovered dead and six were reported missing in the southern town of Sancheong on Saturday after heavy rainfall caused flash floods and landslides.
The overall death toll stood at 16 as of 4pm local time on Sunday, The Korea Herald reported, citing fire authorities.
President Lee Jae Myung ordered the worst-hit areas, mostly in the south of the country, to be declared special disaster zones, which would entitle them to government support for damage recovery and relief.
Interior minister Yoon Ho Jung asked local authorities to “mobilise all available resources” to carry out “swift emergency restoration work” after the government launched a multi-agency recovery effort.
Mr Yoon announced that a prompt damage assessment would be launched to develop restoration plans for damaged facilities, including homes, commercial buildings and roads.
“The ministry and local governments need to ensure that the displaced residents staying in temporary shelters do not face any inconvenience by providing a sufficient amount of relief supplies and making their utmost effort in emergency restoration to help evacuees return to their normal lives as quickly as possible,” he said.
Last week, three people were found dead in a submerged car and another person was killed when their car was buried by soil and concrete after a retaining wall of an overpass collapsed in Osan, just south of Seoul. The saturated soil had increased the risk of landslides even in areas receiving relatively modest rainfall.
The downpours swept through South Chungcheong, South Jeolla and South Gyeongsang regions this past week, with rainfall exceeding 500mm breaking daily rainfall records in July and forcing the evacuation of at least 3,840 people from their homes, the interior ministry said.
The rain stopped in most of South Korea on Sunday and heavy rain alerts were subsequently lifted, the ministry added.
This period of heavy rainfall was expected to be followed by a heat wave, the country’s official weather forecaster said.
