7 people drowned in the underground car park of an apartment building in South Korea after a tidal wave caused by Typhoon Hinnamnor. The incident happened in the country’s southern port city of Pohang on Tuesday night.
Typhoon Hinnamnor, the strongest typhoon of this year, hit the east coast of South Korea on Monday and the south coast of the country on Tuesday. Due to the impact of the cyclone, strong winds, rains and floods have started in the coastal cities in most parts of the country.According to a BBC report citing the South Korean media Yonhap News, the management of the apartment building asked the residents of the building to remove their cars from the underground car park on Tuesday morning due to the forecast of adverse weather and high tide.
Other people living in the building moved the car between morning and noon but 9 people failed to move the car during this period. As the storm picked up later in the evening, they went under the underground garage to get their car out.
But by then it was too late. As soon as they reached the garage, the flood water swallowed them.Quoting members of the rescue team, Yonhap News reported that 2 of the 9 people were rescued alive. They were hanging from the pipe in the ceiling of the garage for about 12 hours to escape the tide.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol expressed his deepest condolences for the dead. Referring to the incident as a ‘disaster’, he said in a condolence message, ‘I could not sleep last night since hearing the news of this disaster.’
In his condolence message, the President said that he has already declared Pohang as a ‘Special Disaster Zone’ and he will go to inspect the situation on the ground on Wednesday.
A total of 10 people were killed in various regions of South Korea on Monday and Tuesday due to strong winds, rain and floods caused by typhoon Hinnamnor. While most of the country’s cities were more or less damaged by the storm, Pohang suffered the most damage.
The city’s seaside hotel-resorts were all destroyed. However, apart from those 7 people, there has been no news of any loss of life in Pohang so far.
SMW
