Seoul –

Two people have died and a further two were missing in the South Korean resort town of Gapyeong on Sunday, after a landslide engulfed houses and flooding swept away vehicles during a period of heavy rainfall.

This brings the nationwide death toll to 14, with 12 people missing since the rain began on Wednesday.

The rainfall is likely to stop on Sunday and be followed by a heat wave, the government weather forecaster said Sunday. The heavy rainfall, which had earlier lashed southern parts of South Korea, moved north overnight, it added.

Close to 170 millimeters of rain hit Gapyeong County in Gyeonggi province, 70 kilometers east of Seoul, early Sunday.

Among the deaths Sunday was a woman in her 70s, who was killed when her house collapsed in a landslide around 4:40 a.m. in Gapyeong, the Yonhap news agency reported.

Most of the deaths have occurred in the southern county of Sancheong, which has seen nearly 800 mm of rain since Wednesday.

South Korea typically experiences monsoon rains in July and is usually well-prepared. But last week, the country's southern regions were hit by especially intense downpours, with some of the heaviest hourly rainfall on record, official weather data showed.

Scientists say climate change has made extreme weather events more frequent and intense around the world.

In 2022, South Korea endured record-breaking rains and flooding, which killed at least 11 people.