Severe flooding in South Korea claims 17 lives, 11 missing

(AFP): Heavy rain in South Korea has killed at least 17 people in recent days, government records showed Sunday, while 11 remain unaccounted for in the intense downpours.

South Korea typically experiences monsoon rains in July and is usually well-prepared. But this week, the country's southern regions were hit with some of the heaviest hourly rainfall on record, according to official data.

There was also a dangerous deluge in the north early Sunday, with close to 170 millimetres (6.7 inches) of rain hitting Gapyeong county in Gyeonggi province, east of the capital Seoul, leaving at least two dead and five missing.

The number of casualties rose throughout the day as bodies of those previously reported missing — many swept away in landslides — were recovered.

A woman in her 70s was killed when her house collapsed in a landslide, while the body of a man in his 40s was found near a bridge after he drowned, Yonhap news agency reported.

The total number of deaths from the five-day deluge now stands at at least 17, with 11 missing, according to interior ministry data as of Sunday evening.

Most of the deaths occurred in the southern county of Sancheong, which has seen nearly 800 millimetres of rain since Wednesday.

With the bodies of those who had gone missing retrieved on Sunday, the number of deaths in the rural county of 33,000 rose to 10, with four still unaccounted for.

Scientists say climate change has made extreme weather events more frequent and intense around the world.

In 2022, South Korea endured record-breaking rains and flooding, which killed at least 11 people.

They 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 "Parasite".

The government said at the time that the rainfall was the heaviest since records began, blaming climate change for the extreme weather.