Flood death toll in South Korea rises to nine

At least nine people have been killed and seven others missing in South Korea after record rain flooded main roads, subway stations and homes, officials said on Wednesday.

The rain that began Monday is the heaviest since South Korea began monitoring weather 115 years ago, according to President Yoon Suk-yeol, who apologized for the “inconvenience”.

Images shared on social media earlier this week showed people wading through waist-deep water and overflowing subway stations.

Seoul’s posh Gangnam district was particularly hard hit, with cars half submerged.

“There are a total of 16 casualties, including nine dead and seven missing,” an Interior Ministry official told AFP.

A total of around 600 people have been affected, he said, many of whom have been forced to leave their homes.

Among the nine victims, three died while trapped in their flooded basement apartment known as the banjiha, the ministry said.

According to local reports, the victims were a teenager, her mother and her aunt.

Another victim died while removing a tree that had fallen on a sidewalk and was probably electrocuted.

Another died after a landslide buried his home in mountainous Gangwon province.

President Yoon, who visited the Banjiha apartment on Tuesday, acknowledged that South Koreans “suffered a lot of damage.”

At a separate government meeting, he urged officials to pay special attention to the most vulnerable.

“Those who are struggling financially or physically are bound to be more vulnerable to natural disasters,” he said.

According to the latest Gallup Korea poll, Yoon’s approval rating has fallen to just 24 percent since he took office in May. He is being criticized for not going to the government emergency call center when the downpour started.

Local media reported his absence was due to flooding around his home, but his office dismissed the claim, saying he decided to stay home as his team already had the answer in hand.