Heavy rain has triggered landslides in South Korea's capital, Seoul, and a northern town, killing 19 people and leaving one child missing, officials said.
Ten of the 13 people killed in an early morning landslide in Chuncheon, about 68 miles northeast of Seoul, were college students who had been doing volunteer work, said Byun In-soo of the town's fire station. They were staying in a resort cabin when the mud and debris engulfed them. Also killed were a married couple and a convenience store owner.
About 500 officials and residents worked to rescue people trapped in the mud and wreckage. Twenty-four people were injured and several buildings destroyed, officials said.
In southern Seoul, six people were killed when a wave of mud crashed through residential areas at the foot of a mountain, said Lee Sun-myeong, a city official. The dead were not yet identified. One child was missing.
About 15 inches of rain fell in Seoul in just 17 hours, starting Tuesday afternoon. More than 10 inches fell on Chuncheon over the last two days, and weather officials said another 10 inches could yet fall in northern South Korea, including Seoul, before the weekend.
Fast-moving, muddy water has filled streets in Seoul, with people scrambling to the roofs of their partially submerged cars. Water filled some subway stations and burst out of of sewers. TV images showed people in one flooded subway station using shovels, brooms and a wooden board in an effort to keep more rain from coming in.
About 800 houses flooded, according to a city disaster official. The official said 23 roads were closed in the city.
Local TV showed officials rescuing walkers stranded on mountainsides. People waded through streets covered with knee-deep water. Cars were restricted from entering the lower part of a two-level bridge in the centre of Seoul because it was submerged.
The Seoul metropolitan police agency issued a traffic emergency, mobilising more officers to deal with the problems caused by the heavy rain.
Seoul officials said they were considering shutting down two major city highways stretching along each side of the main Han river because of rising water levels. Cha Jun-ho, an official at the government's Han river flood control office, said a dam located just east of Seoul was discharging 16,400 tons of water a second; the dam discharged about 1,000 tons a second days before the recent downpours began.
About 60 houses were cut off from roads in Seoul's Hyeongchon village because of the heavy rain, and fire officials were trying to rescue them, a local officer said.
People posted dozens of photos on Twitter and Facebook showing inundated streets and mud-covered cars. Many complained online that Seoul had neglected to prepare for such downpours.
In Chuncheon, TV footage showed a town strewn with debris. Rescuers carried a dazed person covered in mud from head to toe on a stretcher. Others, also covered in mud, limped toward ambulances. Rescue workers in orange rain gear used shovels to move mud, and bulldozers cleared heavy debris.
