SEOUL, Sept 13: A typhoon packing record strength winds slammed into South Korea killing at least 48 people and forcing about 25,000 to flee from their homes, authorities said on Saturday.

At least 25 people were missing and the death toll was expected to rise, officials said.

“We’re still getting damage reports and expect more casualties,” an official at the National Disaster Prevention Headquarters told Reuters.

Typhoon Maemi, with winds of up to 216 kph, a record for South Korea, tore into southern parts of the peninsula on Friday night, carving a swathe of destruction before heading out to sea on Saturday. Maemi means “cicada” in Korean.

“It’s terrible, it’s unbelievable,” Park Young-chun, a farmer in the southern Kyoungsan region, told YTN television.

“All my grape fields are devastated. How can I send my kids to school with nothing left,” said a weeping Park.

YTN television put the death toll at 103 and said rescue workers were trying to reach 10 people trapped in the basement of a collapsed shopping centre in the southern city of Masan.

The storm brought cranes crashing down onto roads and docks and ripped ships from their moorings, tossing them against each other. At least 82 vessels sank in huge seas.

The worst affected area was South Kyeongsang province where at least 15 people drowned and roads were swept away in mud sides.

Up to 453 mm of rain was dumped across some areas. Billboards were sent flying, trees were uprooted and power lines brought down.

Authorities issued flood warnings for areas along the Nakdong river, which flows through the centre and south of the country, as full dams had to open their flood gates.

About 25,000 people had to be evacuated from their homes, the disaster office said.

“Water poured into my house in a minute. I couldn’t get anything out except myself,” Choi Joong-kwon, a resident of Taegu city, told YTN. A landslide in central Chungchong province derailed a Seoul-bound train and 28 passengers were injured, television said.—Reuters