The bodies of eight people have been retrieved from a tunnel submerged by heavy rain in central South Korea, taking the country's death toll from days of torrential downpours to 35.
Seo Jeong-il, head of the west Cheongju fire station, said some 15 vehicles, including a bus, were estimated to have been submerged in the underpass in the city shortly after a levee of a nearby river was destroyed by the downpours on Saturday.
CCTV footage aired on local broadcaster MBC showed muddy water rushing into the tunnel as vehicles drove past with their wheels submerged.
"We are focusing on the search operation as there's likely more people there," Seo told reporters.
The death toll in the tunnel stands at nine, with one body retrieved on Saturday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.
The Ministry of Interior and Safety said 10 people were missing across the country as heavy downpours caused landslides and floods, with evacuation orders covering more than 7,800 people.
The latest disaster took place despite South Korea's vow to step up preparedness, after Seoul was hit last year with floods caused by the heaviest downpours in 115 years, inundating basement flats in low-lying neighbourhoods, including in the largely affluent Gangnam district.
One survivor from the submerged tunnel said the government should have restricted access to the underpass when flooding was expected, Yonhap reported.
A North Chungcheong province official said the levee unexpectedly collapsed before the precipitation reached the level required for restricting access to the tunnel.
President Yoon Suk Yeol, now on an overseas trip, convened a video-linked response meeting and said some regions had failed to take preemptive measures against the extreme weather.
Yoon ordered Prime Minister Han Duck-soo to mobilise all available resources to minimise casualties and urged the weather agency to quickly release forecasts because more heavy rain was expected in the coming days, his office said.
The Korea Meteorological Administration said the central and southern parts of the country could receive as much as 300 millimetres of additional rain by Tuesday.
While South Korea often experiences heavy rains in summer, it has witnessed a sharp increase in torrential rains in recent years.
Korea Railroad Corp has halted all slow trains and some bullet trains since Saturday due to safety concerns over landslides, track flooding and falling rocks.