Heavy Snow Hits South Korea

The heaviest snowfall in two decades has caused hundreds of casualties and traffic paralysis in South Korea for the third straight day by Tuesday.

With the snowfall still going strong at midday, iced roads have triggered a number of traffic accidents, leaving 17 dead and 270 injured.

Korean Air has suspended domestic flights linking 16 cities as of 2 p.m. while Asiana Airlines also suspended nearly all of its domestic flights.

Some international flights to China and Russia were canceled due to the bad weather conditions.

The snowfall, which began again late in the morning, has caused severe traffic jams on inter-city highways and expressways.

A total of 483 barns and 1,598 greenhouses collapsed and hundreds of farm animals were killed by the heavy snow across the country.

The National Disaster Prevention and Countermeasure Headquarters estimated that property damage by the snowfall has exceeded US$100 million.






People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/