Deadly Korean landslides bring landmine warning

South Korean soldiers shovel mud after a flood caused by heavy rains hit the area around an apartment complex in Seoul on Thursday. Tens of thousands of South Korean troops joined a massive clean-up after record-breaking rainfall killed dozens. (PARK JI-HWAN/AFP/Getty Images)

SEOUL, South Korea - Thousands of rescuers dug through thick mud for survivors of deadly landslides and flooding as South Korea's military warned Thursday that buried land mines may have slid down mountains weakened by rain.

Massive rainfall in Seoul and surrounding areas since Tuesday has killed at least 47 people, and another four were missing. The rain stopped or decreased Thursday, but more was forecast until Friday morning.

At a mountain where a deadly slide hit Wednesday, digging for missing people was halted Thursday until the rain stopped because the Defence Ministry said mines placed there in the 1960s could have shifted. Soldiers with metal detectors were waiting to search for the mines, said Yoon Yong-sam, a spokesman for the air force, which planted the land mines around an air defence base on the mountain.

A defence ministry official said earlier that 10 mines could have been pushed down Wumyeon Mountain. The official declined to be named because of policy. Another ministry official, spokesman Kim Min-seok, played down the immediate risk because a concrete wall on the hillside could be stopping the mines from reaching rescue workers.

South Korea's military dug up many land mines on the mountain between 1999 and 2006, but about 10 couldn't be accounted for, officials said. Fences around the base have warnings about unaccounted land mines.

There were also fears of land mines in northern provinces also hit by flooding and slides, prompting the Joint Chiefs of Staff to order mine-search operations where needed.

The landslide Wednesday in southern Seoul killed at least 16 people. About 5,000 firefighters, soldiers, police officers and others mobilized Thursday to try to find any survivors and clean walls of mud piled in residential areas near the base of the mountain, emergency official Kim Wu-min said.

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 shovelling up the dirt piled up near an apartment. Uniformed soldiers and firefighters wearing cotton gloves used their hands to pull out rocks and tree branches from the mud.

Another landslide early Wednesday killed 10 college students sleeping in a resort cabin in Chuncheon, north of Seoul. The students from Inha University in Incheon, just west of Seoul, were volunteering at a local elementary school.

The National Emergency Management Agency reported 18 more deaths because of a stream flooding and landslides elsewhere in towns near Seoul. No deaths of foreigners have been reported.

The rainfall left almost 5,000 people homeless, flooded about 1,380 houses and caused power outages at more than 125,000 homes throughout the country, the National Emergency Management Agency said in a statement Thursday.

The 17 inches (440 millimeters) of rain that fell on Seoul on Tuesday and Wednesday was about 15 times more than the average two-day rainfall at this time of year, according to the state-run Korea Meteorological Administration.

-- The Associated Press

Vehicles are submerged in floodwater after heavy rain in Seoul on Thursday.(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

People work to restore a road damaged by a landslide in Seoul on Thursday. South Koreans were cautioned about rogue landmines and explosives after a series of deadly landslides in and around the capital Seoul swamped military sites. (REUTERS/Truth Leem )

Thousands of rescuers used heavy machinery and shovels Thursday to clear mud and search for survivors. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

South Korean soldiers remove debris at a damaged apartment. (AP Photo/Bae Jung-hyun, Yonhap)

River of mud buries sleeping students in Korean landslide

A street in Seoul after torrential rain pounding South Korea triggered landslides that killed dozens of people. (JANG SEUNG-YOON/AFP/Getty Images)

SEOUL, South Korea - Walls of mud barrelling down a hill buried 10 college students sleeping in a resort cabin and flash floods submerged the streets and subway stations in Seoul, killing at least 32 people Wednesday in South Korea's heaviest rains this year.

The students were engulfed by a landslide in Chuncheon, about 68 miles (110 kilometres) northeast of Seoul, said fire marshal Byun In-soo. A married couple and a convenience store owner also died.

Witnesses interviewed on television said the landslide sounded like a massive explosion or a freight train. They described people screaming as buildings were carried away by rivers of mud.

About 670 firefighters, soldiers, police and others rushed to rescue those trapped and extract the dead from the mud and wreckage in Chuncheon, where 24 others were injured and several buildings destroyed.

In southern Seoul, 16 people died when mud crashed through homes at the foot of a mountain, the National Emergency Management Agency said. Three others also died after a stream just south of the capital flooded, and 10 people were reported missing throughout the country, the agency said in a statement.

Fast-moving mudwaters filled the streets in Seoul on Wednesday, sending residents scrambling to the roofs of their partially submerged cars.

Water filled some subway stations and spewed from 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.

Footage showed officials rescuing hikers stranded on mountainsides. People plodded down streets covered with knee-deep water, many barefoot, their pants rolled up. In Seoul's centre, cars were restricted from entering the lower part of a submerged two-level bridge.

The heavy rain since Tuesday left about 620 people homeless and flooded 720 houses and about 100 vehicles throughout South Korea, the emergency management agency said.

About 17 inches (440 millimeters) of rain fell on Seoul and more than 13 inches (340 millimeters) on Chuncheon in the last two days, about 15 times more than the average two-day rainfall at this time of year, according to the state-run Korea Meteorological Administration.

Weather officials said another 10 inches (254 millimeters) could fall in northern South Korea, including Seoul, through Friday.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency issued a traffic emergency, mobilizing more officers to deal with the inclement weather.

Seoul, a bustling capital of 10 million, shut down portions of two major highways stretching along each side of the main Han River because of high water levels, said disaster official Kim Ji-hwan.

A dam located just east of Seoul was discharging 16,400 tons of water per second, said Cha Jun-ho from the Han River Flood Control Office. The dam already discharged about 1,000 tons per second days before the recent downpours.

People in Seoul, where smartphones are ubiquitous, 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 the downpours.

--The Associated Press

People try to climb on top of a car on a submerged road in Seoul. (AP Photo/Yonhap)

Damaged cars are seen at a village after a landslide and heavy rainfall in Seoul July 27, 2011. (REUTERS/Park Mun-ho/Newsis)

Rescue workers and residents try to escape floodwaters after a river burst its banks following heavy rains in Gwangju, about 40 km southeast of Seoul. (REUTERS/Kang Jong-Min/Newsis )

South Korean soldiers begin the clean-up in Seoul. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

Cars are submerged by floodwaters along a Seoul street. (Photo credit should read YANG HOE-SEONG/AFP/Getty Images)

South Korean rescue workers in Seoul. (AP Photo/Yonhap, Kim Ju-sung)

Downpour cancels flights, shuts subways in Beijing

A flooded stairway at a subway station in central Beijing on Thursday. (REUTERS/China Daily)

BEIJING - Parts of Beijing have been flooded by torrential rain, and airport officials say the downpour forced the cancellation of 150 flights.

Water poured into underground crossings and subway stations and submerged cars in low-lying areas Thursday afternoon. Some parts of the city received 2 inches (50 millimeters) of rain in just a few hours, sending crowds scrambling for whatever shelter they could find.

Flooded roadways snarled traffic and some subway stations were temporarily closed.

Beijing has a generally dry climate, although summer storms can be violent.

Catastrophic flooding this year in central and eastern China has left at least 175 dead and 86 missing and causing 35 billion yuan ($5 billion) in direct economic losses.

--The Associated Press

Torrential rains in parts of central and southern China, including Beijing, have ended a drought in many areas, but now threaten the Yangtze River basin and nearby provinces with floods and mudslides that have killed at least 105 people. (REUTERS/David Gray)

Vehicles drive along a submerged road in Beijing on Thursday (Photo by ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images)

A giant video screen casts its light on cyclists and pedestrians at a Beijing crossing (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

A submerged road in Beijing. (Photo by ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images)

Volcano cuts short Obama's Indonesia visit

Soldiers and rescue workers transported by a military vehicle searching for more victims in Kalitengah village in the Sleman district of Indonesia's central Java province Nov. 10, 2010. REUTERS/Sigit Pamungkas

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia — Indonesia's most volatile volcano spewed clouds of ash high into the sky Wednesday, forcing some international airlines to again cancel flights and President Barack Obama to cut short his visit.

The official death toll, meanwhile, climbed by more than 40 to 191.

Typhoon Megi kills 3 in Philippines

A resident braves the strong winds and heavy rain at the onslaught of typhoon Megi (local name "Juan") Monday Oct.18, 2010 at Cauayan, Isabela province in northeastern Philippines. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

CAUAYAN, PHILIPPINES—The strongest cyclone in years to crash into the Philippines killed at least three people Monday, leaving a wasteland of fallen trees and power poles and sending thousands scampering to safety in near-zero visibility. A retired general said bracing for the onslaught was like preparing for war.

Super typhoon Megi, blowing across the northern Philippines, was forecast next to head toward China and Vietnam, where recent floods unrelated to the storm have caused 30 deaths.

On Monday, strong currents on Vietnam's flooded main highway swept away a bus and 20 of its passengers, including a boy pulled from his mother's grasp. In China, authorities evacuated 140,000 people from a coastal province ahead of the typhoon.

Megi packed sustained winds of 225 kilometres per hour and gusts of 260 km/h as it made landfall midday Monday at Palanan Bay in Isabela province, felling trees and utility poles and cutting off power, phone and Internet services. Its ferocious wind slightly weakened while crossing the mountains of the Philippines' main northern island of Luzon.

With more than 4,000 people riding out the typhoon in sturdy school buildings, town halls, churches and relatives' homes, roads in and out of coastal Isabela province, 320 kilometres northeast of Manila, were deserted and blocked by collapsed trees, power lines and debris.

One man who had just rescued his water buffalo slipped and fell into a river and drowned in Cagayan province, near Isabela. A woman was pinned to death when a tamarind tree crushed her house and injured her child in Kalinga province, and a security guard died after being struck by a pine tree in nearby Baguio city, officials said.

At least six were injured in the region by falling trees, collapsed roof and shattered glass, officials said.

As it crashed ashore, the typhoon whipped up huge waves. There was near-zero visibility and radio reports said the wind was so powerful that people could not take more than a step at a time. Ships and fishing vessels were told to stay in ports, and several domestic and international flights were cancelled.

The entire Isabela province lost power along with 16 of Cagayan's 28 towns as the typhoon blew by. Cagayan Governor Alvaro Antonio said the wind was fierce but blew high from the ground, sparing many ricefields ready for harvesting.

Although initial casualties were low compared to past storm disasters, retired army Maj.-Gen. Benito Ramos, who heads the country's disaster-preparedness agency, expressed sadness over the deaths. Bracing for the typhoon, he said, was like “preparing for war.”

“This was tougher because in war, I could take a nap,” Ramos told The Associated Press.

Thousands of military reserve officers and volunteers were on standby, along with helicopters, including six Chinooks that were committed by U.S. troops holding war exercises with Filipino soldiers near Manila, Ramos said.

In July, an angry President Benigno Aquino III fired the head of the weather bureau for failing to predict that a typhoon would hit Manila. That storm killed more than 100 people in Manila and outlying provinces.

This time, urgent preparations included evacuations and the positioning of emergency relief and food supplies days before the typhoon hit. The capital was expected to avoid any direct hit, though schools were closed.

Megi was the most powerful typhoon to hit the Philippines in four years, government forecasters say. A 2006 howler with 250-km/h winds set off mudslides that buried entire villages, killing about 1,000 people.

In Vietnam, officials say up to 800 millimetres of rain have pounded areas in just a few days, forcing 126,000 people to flee their homes. Earlier flooding this month left more than 80 people dead or missing.

Megi could add to the misery.

“People are exhausted,” Vietnamese disaster official Nguyen Ngoc Giai said by telephone from Quang Binh province. “Many people have not even returned to their flooded homes from previous flooding, while many others who returned home several days ago were forced to be evacuated again.”

China's National Meteorological Centre said Megi was expected to enter the South China Sea on Tuesday, threatening southeastern coastal provinces. The centre issued its second-highest alert for potential “wild winds and huge waves,” warning vessels to take shelter and urging authorities to brace for emergencies.

Nearly 140,000 people fled homes in the southern island province of Hainan, where heavy rains left thousands homeless over the weekend, the official Xinhua news agency reported Monday.

Thailand also reported flooding that killed at least four people, submerged thousands of homes and vehicles and halted train service. It also prompted the evacuation of nearly 100 elephants from a popular tourist attraction north of the capital.

Motorists drive past a filling station which was toppled by typhoon Megi. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

Residents brave the strong winds and heavy rains at the onslaught of typhoon Megi.(AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

Asia battered by severe storms, flooding

A woman sweeps mud out of a hair salon in the flooded city of Sanyo Onoda in western Japan after heavy rains struck the region July 15, 2010. Hundreds of thousands of people in western and southern Japan have been urged to evacuate their homes as heavy rains caused mudslides and flooded houses, killing two and leaving some missing. REUTERS NEWS AGENCY

The death toll in Philippines from Typhoon Conson rose Thursday to 37, with 48 still missing, though the Conson was downgraded to tropical storm status.

Different storm systems meanwhile looked set to batter other countries in the region, leading to severe flooding in China and the evacuation of hundreds of thousands in Japan.

The flooded city of Sanyo Onoda in western Japan after heavy rains struck the region July 15, 2010. REUTERS

Rain storms lash Asia

At least 26 people were killed and dozens more were missing after the first typhoon of the season lashed the Philippines on Wednesday. More than half the main island of Luzon was without power.

Elsewhere in Asia, heavy rains wreaked havoc in China and Japan. The death toll from rain-triggered landslides rose to 37 in western China, and workers raced to drain overflowing reservoirs in the southeast. Flooding has killed 107 people in China so far this month.

--The Associated Press

A woman sells vegetables by candlelight after a power outage at a public market caused by Typhoon Conson in Manila July 14, 2010. CHERYL RAVELO/REUTERS

Chinese residents make their way along a flooded street after torrential rains in Wuhan, central China's Hubei province on July 13, 2010. Torrential rains and severe flooding have left 107 people dead and 59 missing in 10 Chinese provinces. AFP/GETTY IMAGES