South Korea declares state of emergency due to wildfires
There are casualties due to the fires (Illustrative photo: Getty Images)
South Korea has declared a state of emergency after numerous fires broke out in the southern part of the country, according to Bloomberg.
On Friday, firefighters were working hard to extinguish fires that broke out in the southern district of Sancheon, as well as in at least three other regions in the southern part of the country. The Korea Forest Service reported that the fire in Sancheon, which resulted in 4 fatalities and 6 injuries, was 25% contained by Saturday evening.
They added that authorities had mobilized dozens of vehicles and hundreds of personnel to combat the blaze, which destroyed about 847 hectares of land and forced approximately 260 residents of Sancheon to evacuate.
According to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety of South Korea, around 620 residents of the southeastern city of Ulsan and the nearby Gyeongsang Province sought shelter from the forest fires that began on Saturday.
The Ministry also announced that the country declared a state of emergency in the southern regions to facilitate the mobilization of resources for containing the fires and designated Sancheon as a special disaster zone.
Media reports note that the fires are occurring amid one of the greatest political instabilities South Korea has experienced in recent decades, caused by the brief declaration of martial law by President Yoon Suk Yeol in December. Currently, the country is being led by Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok as acting president.
