Rescuers have been searching for nine people still missing in landslides and other incidents caused by more than a week of torrential rains in South Korea, as the country’s military dispatched more than 10,000 troops to support rescue works.

During a Cabinet Council meeting on Tuesday, President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered officials to mobilise all available resources to rescue any possible additional survivors, assist victims and conduct recovery works.

Yoon said the government plans to designate major rain-stricken areas as special disaster zones to help speed up the recovery.

The Defence Ministry said it was sending equipment and 11,000 soldiers on Tuesday to support government efforts to find the missing people and restore damages.

The downpours pounding South Korea since July 9 have left 41 people dead, nine missing and 35 others injured. The rainfall has also forced about 12,780 people to evacuate and left about 28,600 households without power.

Warming globe

Much of the severe damage has been reported in South Korea’s central and southern regions, with the nine missing people listed in the southeastern North Gyeognsang province or the southeastern city of Busan.

Also, 14 fatalities were reported from a tunnel in the central city of Cheongju, where 17 vehicles including a bus were trapped in a flash flood that may have filled up the passageway.

Authorities earlier mobilised divers and other workers to rescue survivors and retrieve bodies before they reportedly ended searches inside the tunnel on Monday night.

Severe weather is also affecting many other places around the world. Earlier this month, relentless flooding also deluged parts of Türkiye, India, Japan, China and the US.

Although destructive floods are occurring in different parts of the world, atmospheric scientists say they have this in common: with the climate crisis, storms are forming in a warmer atmosphere, making extreme rainfall a more frequent reality.