Soil from the slope behind an apartment building in Okpo-dong, Geoje, on South Korea's south coast, gave way at about 4.30 on Monday morning and went through the ground floor. One resident was pulled out in cardiac arrest and later died. Police and fire crews put about 170 people and 62 vehicles into the site and brought out four in all.
The rain that preceded it was extraordinary even for the south coast in August. Geoje recorded 508.8 millimetres in the six hours from midnight, and about 900 millimetres over two days.
Rescue work went on with stones still coming off the slope and a standing risk of further collapse. In Yesol village in Aju-dong, in the same city, around a hundred residents were moved out as the ground above them became unsafe.
Across the wider south, the same system tore up road surfaces and left one dead and three injured by the count reported on Monday.
Why it is on the board
It arrived through video first. The Yonhap News TV alert clip was among the fastest-climbing Korean news videos in our collection on Monday morning, ahead of the written coverage, which is what usually happens here when something breaks before dawn.
확인: 머니투데이 · 뉴스핌 · SBS