Rescue workers in South Korea have recovered seven bodies from a bus trapped in a flooded underground tunnel, according to media reports, as days of torrential rains caused widespread flooding, landslides and the overflow of a big dam.
Officials in the central town of Osong told the Yonhap news agency on Sunday that rescue workers recovered six more bodies from the 685-metre-long (2,247 feet) tunnel as they scrambled to reach several people who remained trapped.
Nearly 400 rescue workers, including divers, were searching the tunnel in the central city of Cheongju, where the vehicles, including a bus, were swamped by a flash flood on Saturday evening, Seo Jeong-il, chief of the city’s fire department, said in a briefing.
Photos and video from the scene showed rescue workers establishing a perimeter and pumping brown water out of the tunnel as divers used rubber boats to move in and out of the area.
Rescue workers carry the body of a victim recovered during a search and rescue operation near an underpass that has been submerged by a flooded river caused by torrential rain in Cheongju, South Korea, July 16, 2023.
The four-lane underpass became inundated when the banks of the nearby Miho River collapsed following three days of heavy rain.
The deluge swept through the tunnel too quickly for people to escape, according to media reports. Fire officials estimated that the tunnel filled with water in as little as two or three minutes.
Source: Aljazeera.com
