Subway stations and major roads were underwater in the South Korean capital Seoul after record-breaking rains caused severe flooding, with at least seven people dead and seven more missing, officials said Tuesday, APA reports citing AFP.
Dramatic images shared on social media late Monday showed people wading through waist-deep water, metro stations overflowing, and cars half-submerged in Seoul's posh Gangnam district after torrential rain battered the city.
The downpour that began Monday is the heaviest rainfall in South Korea in 80 years, according to Seoul's Yonhap news agency.
"At least seven people died in the Seoul metropolitan area, while seven others are missing, due to heavy rain as of 7:30 this morning," an official at Seoul's Interior ministry told AFP.
Local reports said three people living in a banjiha -- cramped basement flats of the kind made famous in Bong Joon-ho's Oscar-winning "Parasite" -- including a teenager, died as their apartment was inundated by floodwaters.
Parts of Seoul, surrounding Gyeonggi province and port city Incheon recorded rains of more than 100 millimeters per hour Monday night, according to the Yonhap news agency, with per-hour precipitation in the capital's Dongjak district surpassing 141.5 mm at one point, the heaviest downpour since 1942.
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