South Korean warplanes inadvertently dropped eight bombs on a residential area on Thursday, injuring 15 and burning houses and a church during a military drill in Pocheon, the Air Force and fire department said. The fire department, in a statement, said 15 were injured and two were critically injured. Pocheon is situated about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Seoul on the tightly guarded border with North Korea. A fighter plane emitted a loud scream and then exploded. When I reached the site, there were about four houses that were half-destroyed by the blast and injured people," said Oh Moung-su, 65.
Smoke and twilight whipped through the air; water erupted from a pipe. Individuals in a car riding to a place of construction were hurt—several of them could not exit the car at all. Another was standing next to the car, holding his hand up to his eye. The South Korean Air Force has confirmed that eight 500-pound (225 kg) Mk82 bombs dropped short of the firing range when dropped from two KF-16 planes during combined live-fire exercises. We regret the loss due to the abnormal drop accident, and we hope the victims will recover soon," the Air Force said in a statement. The mishap took place due to incorrect coordinates keyed by one of the pilots, according to a spokesman for the armed forces who insisted on not being named. Both planes then released four bombs in total, each of which exploded.
Live fire exercises would be halted pending full information about the incident, the spokesman added. The mishap would, however, have no impact on scale-sized combined South Korean and American military drills, which were slated to commence Monday.
The residents have long been complaining about the noise and danger caused by the training ranges in the area. Photos at the scene revealed a house that was destroyed by the explosion, broken windows, and a church building with debris all over the place. Security video footage from local television also showed the seconds before the blast and features a pickup truck driving on a road lined with trees before the screen erupts in a huge explosion.
The unthinkable has occurred," Pocheon city mayor Baeck Young-hyeun said, urging the government and military to come up with ways to ensure no other civilian is murdered. The defense ministry had earlier on Thursday announced that US and South Korean troops were holding their first combined live-fire exercise in Pocheon as part of the standardized military drills scheduled to start next week.
The biennial Freedom Shield exercise running from March 10 to March 20 under joint conduct aimed at improving preparedness of the alliance against such a threat as North Korea, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) had declared before the accident. This year's drills will feature "takeaways from recent armed conflicts" and deepening North Korea-Russian relations, it added. "Our planners get out and take a look around the world and say what are the trends that are emerging and we look at how we can work that into our exercises," United States Forces Korea spokesman Ryan Donald said in a media briefing Thursday. There will be some 70 combined field training maneuvers this year's exercise, Seoul's JCS spokesman Lee Sung-jun also said.
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