7 bodies pulled from flooded tunnel in South Korea as heavy rains cause flash floods and landslides
Seoul (AP): South Korean rescue workers pulled seven bodies from a flooded tunnel where around 15 vehicles were trapped in muddy water, as days of heavy rain triggered flash floods and landslides and destroyed homes, leaving at least 33 people dead and forcing thousands to evacuate, officials said on Sunday.
Nearly 400 rescue workers, including divers, were searching the tunnel in the central city of Cheongju, where the vehicles, including a bus, were swamped by a flash flood Saturday evening, Seo Jeong-il, chief of the city's fire department, said in a briefing.
Photos and video from the scene showed rescue workers establishing a perimeter and pumping brown water out of the tunnel as divers used rubber boats to move in and out of the area.
Yang Chan-mo, an official from the North Chungcheong provincial fire department, said it could take several hours to pump out all the water from the tunnel, which was still filled with 4 to 5 metres (13 to 16.4 feet) of water dense with mud and other debris. Workers were proceeding slowly with the work to prevent any victims or survivors from being swept out, Yang said.
Nine survivors were rescued from the tunnel and 11 others were believed to be missing based on reports by families or others, but the exact number of passengers trapped in vehicles wasn't immediately clear, Seo said.
South Korea has been pounded by heavy rains since July 9. The rainfall had forced more than 6,100 people to evacuate and left 27,260 households without electricity in the past several days while flooding or destroying dozens of homes, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said. At least 22 people were being treated for injuries.
President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is on a trip to Europe, discussed the rain-related casualties and damages during an emergency meeting while travelling to Poland on a train after visiting Ukraine on Saturday, according to his office.
Yoon called for officials to mobilize all available resources to respond to the disaster.
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Centre spent Rs 76.13 lakh on print media ads for RSS centenary, reveals RTI
New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Culture allegedly spent Rs 76.13 lakh on print advertisements marking the 100-year celebrations of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), according to a Right to Information (RTI) reply.
The information was sought by RTI activist Ajay Basudev Bose, who filed an application seeking details on expenditure incurred by the ministry for advertisements commemorating the RSS centenary.
Bose shared a picture of the reply from the ministry on his official ‘X’ handle.
“It is informed that an amount of Rs 76,13,129 has been spent on advertisement given in various print media by the Ministry of Culture on the occasion of the completion of 100 years of RSS,” the government’s reply stated.
RTI reply shows Min of Culture Govt of India spent a Whopping Rs 76L,13K,129 on Advertisement in Print Media on occasion of 100 yrs of #RSS
— AJAY Basudev Bose (@AjayBos93388306) April 16, 2026
When Everyone knows RSS is Not Registered & Does not Pay any Tax is it justified to spend Tax Payers Money on such Private event??@RSSorg… pic.twitter.com/dW4IUtdNCg
Bose questioned the expenditure in the post X, “when Everyone knows RSS is Not Registered & Does not Pay any Tax is it justified to spend Tax Payers Money on such Private event??”
Reacting to the development, Karnataka’s IT-BT and Panchayat Raj Minister Priyank Kharge also criticised the spending.
In a post on X, he asked why public money was being used for what he described as a “private ideological project” and questioned the government’s decision to fund advertisements related to the organisation’s centenary.
According to reports, the RSS, founded in 1925, describes itself as a volunteer-based organisation and has stated that it functions as a body of individuals rather than a registered entity.
