Cheongsong, March 25 (IANS) South Korean Police said on Tuesday that the burned body of a woman in her 60s was found on a roadside in the southeastern county of Cheongsong, where massive wildfires are spreading.
The 65-year-old woman, whose identity was withheld, was found dead by a passerby at around 7 pm on the roadside just off a main road in the area, police said.
She had apparently been evacuating by car following the evacuation order from the local authorities. When she was discovered, she had appeared to have managed to get out of the vehicle, police said.
Police said they believe the victim died after being caught in the wildfire while evacuating, Yonhap news agency reported.
“We are also investigating to see if there were any other possible causes of death,” an official said.
Earlier on Tuesday, South Korean Acting President Han Duck-soo instructed regional governments to make all-out efforts to evacuate residents from wildfire-hit areas in the country’s southeast.
His instruction came as the wildfires that began in Sancheong County in the southeast on Friday are spreading rapidly to neighboring regions amid strong, dry winds, increasing the risk of human casualties as the flames reached Andong city and Cheongsong County.
Han called for local governments to “mobilise all available administrative resources to ensure residents in the affected areas can quickly move to safe locations,” his office said.
He ordered relevant authorities, including the Korea Forest Service, the National Fire Agency and the defence ministry, to deploy all equipment and personnel to contain the wildfires as quickly as possible.
Han also called for the “thorough preparation of firefighting personnel and equipment,” while prioritising the safety of the firefighting crews and maintaining control to prevent any safety accidents, his office said.
Hours later, Han visited the main situation room of the central disaster control headquarters at the interior ministry in Seoul to check government responses and details of the damage from the fires so far, his office said.
–IANS
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