SEOUL (AFP) – Torrential rain brought by the approach of Typhoon Dianmu has left five people dead and grounded dozens of flights in South Korea, the disaster control agency said Wednesday.
Two hikers drowned as they crossed a swollen stream in northwestern Seoul, where 120 millimetres (five inches) of rain fell in the space of three hours late Tuesday, the National Emergency Management Agency said.
A driver died after his taxi was caught in a flooded waterway in Mapo district in western Seoul.
A local TV journalist was pronounced dead in hospital Wednesday in the southern port city of Busan, a day after he fell into the sea while reporting on the typhoon from a pier.
In the southern county of Namhae, a 53-year-old man died Tuesday night after his car was swept into the sea, the agency said.
Some 130 homes were flooded nationwide, 74 flights were cancelled and 91 ferry trips suspended, it said.
Dianmu made landfall on the south coast early Wednesday, and dumped more rain as it passed through the south of the peninsula towards the Sea of Japan (East Sea).