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The deadly wildfires have forced more than 27,000 residents to flee their homes.
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SEOUL: At least 18 people have died as multiple wildfires rage across South Korea's southeastern region, with thousands of firefighters aided by the military deployed in a bid to contain one of the country's worst forest fires in decades.
The deadly wildfires have spread rapidly and forced more than 27,000 residents to flee their homes, the government said. The blazes, fuelled by strong winds and dry weather, have razed entire neighbourhoods, closed schools and forced authorities to transfer hundreds of inmates from prisons.
As of 5am local time (4am, Singapore time) on Wednesday, 14 people had died in a wildfire starting from Uiseong county, while four other deaths were linked to another fire from Sancheong county, according to the Safety Ministry.
The Uiseong fire, only 68 per cent contained and exacerbated by strong winds, shows "unimaginable" scale and speed, said Lee Byung-doo, a forest disaster expert at the National Institute of Forest Science.
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Han told an emergency safety and disaster meeting that the blazes were "developing in a way that is exceeding both existing prediction models and earlier expectations".
A new study by non-profit organisation SG Her Empowerment (SHE), which surveyed 25 survivors of online harms, has found that they are not getting the support they need. The survivors cited complex legal systems, delayed platform responses and societal stigma. SHE is calling for a system that allows survivors to report to a central agency, and for harmful content to be taken down quickly. Kate Low reports.
In the city of Andong, some evacuees sheltering in an elementary school gym told AFP they had to flee so quickly they could bring nothing with them.
The All Blacks testnot won a test at the Wellington Regional Stadium in their last five attempts going back to 2018 but Salakaia-Loto, who played when the Wallabies earned a 16-16 draw in 2020 at the ground, was not reading much into that.
"It's the All Blacks at home in New Zealand and it's always going to be a tough match," he added.
"Every team goes through spells like these and whether it's Auckland, Wellington or Dunedin, wherever you play, they're a world class outfit.
Eight Russian helicopters out of the Korea Forest Service's fleet of 48 used in fire-fighting had been taken out of operation since last year due to an inability to import parts from Russia because of sanctions related to the Ukraine war, Yoon Joon-byeong, a Democratic Party lawmaker said in October, using data from the forest service.
