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| Firefighters search through debris during rescue efforts at the resort area in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province, Monday. / Yonhap |
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| Yonhap |
By Jung Min-ho
New Zealand nationals were among the victims confirmed dead after a mudslide engulfed a resort pension in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province, amid heavy rain in Korea's central regions earlier this week, according to a local media report.
Police and rescue workers said Tuesday that they recovered the bodies of three people, who were inside when it was buried under a landslide Monday morning.
According to JoongAng Ilbo, a local daily, the victims were New Zealand citizens ― a pension owner, 65, her daughter, 36, and her grandson, 2. A spokeswoman for the New Zealand Embassy in Seoul told The Korea Times that she could not immediately confirm the report.
On the same day, a landslide swept over a temporary building in a semiconductor parts plant in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, killing three workers in their 30s and seriously injuring one in his 50s.
The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters said the downpour had left 13 people dead and 13 missing across the country as of Tuesday morning.
More than 1,000 from 629 households were forced to leave their homes; more than half of them were in North Chungcheong Province, followed by 391 in Gyeonggi and 70 in Gangwon.
Property damage has also continued to snowball, with 1,483 private assets and 1,475 public facilities damaged. A total of 5,751 hectares of farm land have been swamped or buried.
