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Via WBAL:
(SEOUL, South Korea) -- Heavy rain with thunder and lightning has battered South Korea's central areas for two straight days, causing damage, injuries and deaths.
Ten people have died and seven more have been reported missing in the heavy rain in the last two days, according to South Korea's Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters. A family of three living in a semi-basement apartment died when their home flooded, in Gwanak-gu, Seoul, officials said.
The heaviest-ever rainfall since South Korea began tracking precipitation data has flooded subway stations and submerged roads and homes.
Korea Meteorological Administration said the rainfall was a result of a strong collision between dry cold air coming from the North and hot humid air from the South.
Thousands of vehicles were submerged in Seoul on Monday night, forcing drivers to abandon their cars on the flooded road to get home. Muddy water brimmed over the river onto the streets and into the vehicles. Public sewers overflowed, not being able to hold the amount of rain that poured fast and hard.
"It rained 140 millimeters (5.5 inches) Monday night in the Dongjak district, Seoul, in just one hour. Seoul city's annual precipitation is 1,400 millimeters (55 inches), which means that in just one hour, one-tenth of Seoul city's yearly rainfall poured in just one part of the city in a very short period," Lee Young-joo, professor of fire prevention science at the University of Seoul, told ABC News.