Torrential rain pounds South Korea for third day as thousands take shelter

Some parts in the south including the city of Gwangju were hit by record precipitation of more than 400mm in the past 24 hours

A man makes his way through a flooded street, caused by torrential rain, in Gwangju, South Korea, Jul 17, 2025. Yonhap via REUTERS

More than 5,000 people in South Korea have been forced into shelters as heavy rain pounded parts of the country for a third day, with the deluge killing at least four people and destroying property and infrastructure, the safety ministry said on Friday.

Torrential rain warnings remain in effect for most of the country's western and southern regions and the weather service has advised extreme caution against landslides and flooding through Saturday.

Some parts in the south including the city of Gwangju were hit by record precipitation of more than 400 millimetres (16 inches) in the past 24 hours as of early on Friday, the safety ministry said.

Four people have died and one remained missing, it said. Two were trapped in cars on flooded roads and another died in a basement under flood water in the central South Chungcheong province, it said.

A driver was also killed after a 10-metre-high (33 ft) roadside wall collapsed on top of a moving vehicle on Wednesday in Osan, some 44 kilometres (27 miles) south of Seoul, fire agency officials said.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who has been vocal about stepping up the government's role in disaster prevention and response, said while natural disasters were hard to prevent, more can be done to anticipate damage and warn the public.

"I see there were cases where casualties occurred because of a poor response when the situation was reasonably predictable," he said at an emergency meeting on the weather on Friday, calling for all available resources to be deployed.