Rescuers search through mud for flood survivors
Source: Agencies |
July 29, 2011, Friday
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Print Edition
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THOUSANDS of rescuers dug through thick mud searching for survivors of deadly landslides and flooding as South Korea's military warned yesterday that buried land mines may have slid down mountains weakened by rain.
The effects of excessive rainfall in Seoul and surrounding areas since Tuesday have killed at least 47 people and another four are missing. The rain stopped or decreased yesterday, but more was forecast up to this morning.
At a mountain where a landslide struck yesterday, digging for missing people was halted until rain stopped because the Defense Ministry said mines placed there in the 1960s may have moved. Soldiers with metal detectors were searching for them, according to Yoon Yong-sam, a spokesman for the air force, which planted the mines around an air base on the mountain.
A defense ministry official said earlier that 10 mines could have been pushed down Wumyeon mountain. Another ministry spokesman played down the immediate risk because a concrete wall on the hillside is likely to be stopping the mines from reaching rescue workers.
South Korea's military removed many land mines on the mountain between 1999 and 2006, but about 10 could not be accounted for, officials said. Fences around the base carry warnings about them.
There were also fears of land mines in northern provinces hit by flooding and landslides, prompting the authorities to instigate searches for mines.
The landslide yesterday in southern Seoul killed at least 16 people. About 5,000 firefighters, soldiers, police officers and others were mobilized yesterday to try to find survivors and clean walls of mud piled up in residential areas, according to emergency official Kim Wu-min.
Bae Jin-sun, a 27-year-old who works in southern Seoul, said she was worried about the safety of rescue workers near the mountain.
"There is still the possibility of a land mine falling through the cracks," she said.
Footage by YTN television network showed excavators removing a mass of mud and fallen tree parts, and rescuers in raincoats shoveling away the dirt piled up near an apartment. Uniformed soldiers and firefighters wearing cotton gloves used their hands to pull rocks and tree branches from the mud.
The effects of excessive rainfall in Seoul and surrounding areas since Tuesday have killed at least 47 people and another four are missing. The rain stopped or decreased yesterday, but more was forecast up to this morning.
At a mountain where a landslide struck yesterday, digging for missing people was halted until rain stopped because the Defense Ministry said mines placed there in the 1960s may have moved. Soldiers with metal detectors were searching for them, according to Yoon Yong-sam, a spokesman for the air force, which planted the mines around an air base on the mountain.
A defense ministry official said earlier that 10 mines could have been pushed down Wumyeon mountain. Another ministry spokesman played down the immediate risk because a concrete wall on the hillside is likely to be stopping the mines from reaching rescue workers.
South Korea's military removed many land mines on the mountain between 1999 and 2006, but about 10 could not be accounted for, officials said. Fences around the base carry warnings about them.
There were also fears of land mines in northern provinces hit by flooding and landslides, prompting the authorities to instigate searches for mines.
The landslide yesterday in southern Seoul killed at least 16 people. About 5,000 firefighters, soldiers, police officers and others were mobilized yesterday to try to find survivors and clean walls of mud piled up in residential areas, according to emergency official Kim Wu-min.
Bae Jin-sun, a 27-year-old who works in southern Seoul, said she was worried about the safety of rescue workers near the mountain.
"There is still the possibility of a land mine falling through the cracks," she said.
Footage by YTN television network showed excavators removing a mass of mud and fallen tree parts, and rescuers in raincoats shoveling away the dirt piled up near an apartment. Uniformed soldiers and firefighters wearing cotton gloves used their hands to pull rocks and tree branches from the mud.
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