Lightning in storm kills a woman hiker in Gyeonggi

In the rainy season storms from Sunday to Monday, at least one person died of a lightning strike and two were injured in a landslide.

Parts of Gyeonggi were hit the hardest. From early morning Sunday to 4 p.m. Monday, it rained a total of 161.5 millimeters (6.3 inches) in Gwangmyeong, 142.5 millimeters in Icheon, 138.5 millimeters in Goyang, 137.5 millimeters in Incheon and 116 millimeters in Yongin.

Around 4:30 p.m. Sunday in Goyang, a 61-year-old woman was struck by lightning near Insu Peak of Mount Bukhan and died.

She was hiking with four other people when she decided to sit on a rock and rest. That’s when the lightning struck, according to the other four hikers, who felt the strike but did not sustain serious injuries.

“Based on the hikers’ testimonies and signs of an electric shock on the victim’s body, we suspect that she was struck dead by the lightning,” said a police officer. “We are still questioning witnesses to determine if there could have been other causes of her death.”

Around 7 p.m. Sunday on Route 45 in Anseong, around 1 ton of rock and dirt slid onto the road. The landslide hit a passing car, injuring two people inside. They were treated at a hospital.

Authorities cleared the road by around 8 p.m. Sunday but kept the traffic off it until 6:30 a.m. Monday in case of another landslide.

Around 10:20 p.m. Sunday in Gwangmyeong, part of the basement floor of the KTX-Gwangmyeong Station was flooded. Workers drained the area overnight.

Three houses in Bucheon and two in Anyang were flooded during the downpour.

A pothole 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) wide, 0.8 meter long and 0.1 meter deep was found on Route 23 in Anseong on Sunday night, and it was filled in overnight by the local fire department and authorities.

The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) announced a heavy rain advisory on Sunday night for cities in Gyeonggi including Yeoju, Anseong, Icheon, Yongin, Paju, Goyang and Gimpo.

The KMA issues a heavy rain advisory in a region when the precipitation is expected to exceed 70 millimeters in the next six hours or 110 millimeters in the next 12 hours. The national weather agency said that southern Gyeonggi and Seoul may see 30 to 80 millimeters of rain from Monday to today.

BY CHOI MO-RAN, ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]