By Hyonhee Shin
SEOUL (Reuters) – Two South Koreans have been rescued after being trapped in a submerged underground parking garage for more than 12 hours in a city battered by a powerful typhoon, authorities said on Wednesday.
Typhoon Hinnamnor tore through South Korea’s southern industrial hubs this week, leaving at least 10 people dead, 2 missing and thousands displaced.
Residents cheered and clapped as rescue workers carried the survivors, a man in his 30s and a woman in her 50s, on stretchers out of the flooded underground garage at an apartment complex in the southern city of Pohang.
The man was found alive clinging to pipes, while the woman had climbed atop construction panels, both able to breathe because of a pocket of air in the flooded underground space, fire official Park Chi-min told a televised briefing.
The two were now in a stable condition, while six other people were found dead inside the garage, he said.
More than 170 members of local fire stations, the military and the coast guard joined forces in the rescue efforts, wading through meters of muddy water to find survivors, he said.
President Yoon Suk-yeol offered condolences to the bereaved families and promised support for all rescue operations and typhoon victims.
Yoon called for designating Pohang as a special disaster zone eligible for tax breaks and government subsidies, and travelled to the area later on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Peter Graff)
