SEOUL — Thirteen people were killed and 6 others were missing late Friday due to heavy rains in South Korea.

According to the Korean Central Disaster Management Headquarters and Safety Measures, as many as 13 people were killed, including 8 in Seoul, 3 in Gyeonggi-do province and 2 in Gangwon-do province.

Six others were missing, including one person in Seoul, 3 people in Gyeonggi-do province and two people in Gangwon-do province, in addition to the injury of 18 other people.

The heavy rains caused the displacement of 1,492 people, and 4,807 others were temporarily evacuated.

The nation was lashed by the heaviest rains in more than 100 years. More rain was forecast as floods submerged some streets and buildings trapping people in flooded apartments and stranded cars.

“The clean-up operation is continuing across Seoul, and also in the surrounding province. After these unprecedented rains, streets, roads turned into rivers, vehicles were swept away and sadly, lives were lost.

“Some people were caught up in their apartments by rapidly rising floodwaters, other people swept away in the torrents.”

The downpours have inundated a total of 2,676 houses and buildings, most of them in the capital, and led to the temporary suspension of services on the railway and underground metro.

President Yoon Suk-yeol, who paid a visit to a semi-basement apartment in Seoul where three people were killed in a flash flood, said he was praying for the victims and ordered officials to ensure the most vulnerable were protected.

“It’s certainly true that it is abnormal weather, but we can no longer call such abnormal weather abnormal,” Yoon said, adding that the downpours were the heaviest since records began 115 years ago.

“We could see new record levels at any time. This shows that we can no longer respond based on past cases. We must respond with worse-than-expected scenarios in mind.”

“The clean-up operation is continuing across Seoul, and also in the surrounding province,” Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride said from the capital. “After these unprecedented rains, streets, roads turned into rivers, vehicles were swept away and sadly, lives were lost.

Some people were caught up in their apartments by rapidly rising floodwaters, other people swept away in the torrents.” — Agencies