67 dead or missing in record rainfall

The toll from this week's record rainfall has risen to 53 deaths and 14 people missing in landslides and flooding across South Korea, the country's disaster management agency said Thursday.

A series of mudslides that hit southern parts of Seoul on Wednesday left 16 dead, another person missing and 20 others injured, while 13 people were killed and four were injured when a landslide engulfed a lodging house in Chuncheon, some 75 kilometers northeast of Seoul, according to the agency.

A factory in Paju, north of Seoul, was also devastated in a landslide, leaving three killed, another missing and two seriously injured. Other deaths came from Gwangju, Pocheon and other cities and counties surrounding Seoul, according to the agency.

The heaviest downpours in a century also rendered 9,440 people from 4,809 households in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province homeless, while 2,036 people in Paju and other areas were evacuated from their homes because of fears of flooding.

About 126,000 households across South Korea suffered from power outages, with 803 households in Paju and nearby regions still remaining without electricity, while some 2,500 homes and 760 hectares of farmland were also flooded, the agency said.

(Yonhap)