At least three dead as South Korea battles heavy snow

Record snowfall successful and astir Seoul creates question headache, with flights and ferries cancelled.

Heavy snowfall successful South Korea has disrupted flights and ferries and killed astatine slightest 3 people.

The state grappled with its 2nd time of record snow connected Thursday, with the authorities reporting that 3 radical had died successful Gyeonggi province, wherever the capital, Seoul, is located.

One idiosyncratic died erstwhile a play signifier nett loaded with snowfall collapsed successful the metropolis of Pyeongtaek, portion different was struck by a falling histrion successful the metropolis of Yongin, according to the Yonhap quality agency.

On Wednesday evening, constabulary reported that 11 radical were injured successful a 53-vehicle pile-up connected a road successful the cardinal metropolis of Wonju successful Gangwon state successful the eastbound of the country. It was unclear whether the mishap had caused immoderate deaths.

On Thursday, up to 40cm (15.7 inches) of snowfall had piled up successful parts of Seoul by 11am (02:00 GMT), the Interior Ministry said, adding that 156 flights were cancelled and 104 ferry services disrupted.

Passengers astatine Seoul’s main airport, Incheon, faced delays of 2 hours connected mean connected Thursday, with 14 percent of flights delayed and 15 percent cancelled, level tracking website Flightradar24 showed.

The 2nd time of snowfall prompted the metropolis authorities to deploy 11,000 unit and 20,000 pieces of instrumentality for snowfall removal operations successful the capital.

Schools successful Gyeonggi received support to adjacent connected Thursday if needed, provincial authorities said.

Seoul connected Wednesday recorded its heaviest November snowfall since records began much than a period ago, according to the country’s upwind agency.

Authorities reported 131 impermanent powerfulness outages, with 46 restored by the extremity of Wednesday.

The unusually dense November snowfall has been attributed to the warmer-than-usual temperatures of seawaters westbound of the Korean Peninsula encountering currents of acold air.

Neighbouring North Korea has besides received much than 10cm (4 inches) of snowfall successful immoderate areas betwixt Tuesday and Wednesday, according to authorities broadcaster Korean Central Television.

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Al Jazeera and quality agencies