Rains, mudslides submerge SKorean capital, kill 36Seoul: Walls of mud barreling down a hill
buried 10 college students sleeping in a resort cabin and
flash floods submerged the streets and subway stations in
Seoul, killing at least 36 people on Wednesday in South Korea's
heaviest rains this year.
The students were engulfed by a landslide in
Chuncheon, about 110 kilometers northeast of Seoul, said fire
marshal Byun In-soo. A married couple and a convenience store
owner also died.
Witnesses interviewed on television said the landslide
sounded like a massive explosion or a freight train. They
described people screaming as buildings were carried away by
rivers of mud.
About 670 firefighters, soldiers, police and others
rushed to rescue those trapped and extract the dead from the
mud and wreckage in Chuncheon, where 24 others were injured
and several buildings destroyed.
Yonhap news agency reported the 10 students attended
Inha University in Incheon, but did not confirm they all were
South Korean. The group was volunteering at a local elementary
school.
In southern Seoul, 16 people died when mud crashed
through homes at the foot of a mountain. The National
Emergency Management Agency reported seven deaths due to
flooding in a stream just south of the capital and said the
toll was expected to rise as dozens of people were missing.
Fast-moving mudwaters filled the streets in Seoul
today, sending residents scrambling to the roofs of their
partially submerged cars.
Water filled some subway stations and spewed from
sewers.
PTI
zee
First Published: Wednesday, July 27, 2011, 14:02