By Hyung-Jin Kim, Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – Two South Korean hunting planes accidentally abandoned eight bombs in a civil area during a joint exercise to shoot live with the American army on Thursday, injuring eight people, officials announced.
The MK-82 bombs published by KF-16 fighter planes fell outside a shooting field, Air Force said in a press release. He apologized and expressed his hopes for rapid recovery from the injured and said he would offer compensation and take the other necessary measures.
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The Air Force said that fighter planes participated in the one -day shooting exercise with the American army in Pocheon, a city close to the strongly armed border with North Korea.
The Air Force also said that a committee would investigate the accident and examine the extent of the damage inflicted.
An unidentified Air Force official told local journalists that one of the KF-16s had entered bad details for an attack site. An unidentified defense ministry official told journalists that a more in-depth investigation was necessary to determine why the second KF-16 had also abandoned bombs in a civil area.
In a television briefing, Pocheon mayor, Paek Young Hyeun, described the attacks as “terrible” and urged the military to stop exercises in the city until it formulates reliable steps which can prevent a recurrence. He said that Pocheon, a city of 140,000 inhabitants, provides three major shooting beaches to the South Korean and American soldiers.
Park Seong-Sook, a 70-year-old eyewitness who was not injured in the attack, said that she thought that “a war broke out”.
“It was such a noisy sound,” she said, adding that it let her tremble with fear.
The army later said Thursday that it had decided to suspend all the live shooting exercises across South Korea.
The accident came just before the South Korean and American soldiers announced that they would start annual military exercises on a large scale next Monday.
It is not known how long the suspension of the live shooting training would last, but the observers said that it would probably be until the soldiers determine the cause of the accident on Thursday and that the preventive stages on Thursday.
The department of response to pocket disasters said six civilians and two soldiers had been injured and were treated in hospitals. Four of the injured – all civilians – were in serious condition, the ministry said. Two of the seriously injured are foreigners, one of Thailand and the other of Myanmar.
According to the department, three houses, a Catholic church and a greenhouse, but they did not seem to have been directly affected by the bombs, according to the department.
The video journalist of Associated Press Yong-Ho Kim in Pocheon, South Korea, contributed to this report.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
