Fifteen injuries after fighter jets drop bombs by accident

Fifteen The people in South Korea were injured, two of them seriously, after a pair of fighters He accidentally launched eight bombs in a civilian district during a military live exercise, local media reported.

The incident associated with the KF-16 Air Force Air Force took place around 10:04 local time (01:04 GMT) in Tsanon, near the North Korea border.

The South Korea Air Force said it was investigating the incident and apologized for the damage, adding that it would provide compensation to those affected.

While live firing exercises sometimes land near civil residences, they rarely cause injuries.

According to reports in the local media, two people have suffered fractures on their necks and shoulders.

A 60-year-old, who was driving when the explosion happened, had settled shrapnel in their neck, Yonhap reported.

“I was driving when I heard a” blast, “they said.” When I woke up, I was in an ambulance. “

“Our KF-16 (Jet Fighter) abnormally released eight MK-82 bombs. It landed outside the firing range,” Korea’s Air Force said in a statement to the BBC.

The military said the pilot of one of the jets had introduced wrong coordinates by mistake, which causes bombs to give up the civil community.

Investigators have not yet determined why the second plane has missed their bombs, the military said, adding that all live exercises would be stopped.

A church building and houses were also damaged as a result of the incident.

The images published in the local media show a broken building window and a damaged roof of the church.

A local resident told Yonhap that he watched TV at home when the explosion that sounded “like a thunderstorm” shook the house.

The director of the nearby elderly care center said the windows of the building were crashing and one of their teachers was taken to hospital with injury. Until no adult had been injured, they said, “They were so scared that we sent them all to home.”

Pocheon authorities told the BBC earlier on Thursday that residents were evacuated, while a bomb disposal team is working to safely throw away some unexplored bombs.

But later, authorities said they did not find unexplored bombs at the scene, Yonhap reported.

The Ministry of Defense said training on Thursday was related to a joint training with the United States.

South Korea and the United States are ready to conduct combined training from March 10 to 20 – the first after the return of US President Donald Trump to the White House. This comes at a time when the two countries are increasingly cautious about the growing union between North Korea and Russia.

During another joint workout from South Korea and the United States in 2022, troops fired a short -distance ballistic missile that was operating and crashed at a golf course at the military base. Until the head of the war, it still burst into flames and sends a panic that blows to the residents in the area.