South Korea's most powerful typhoon on record left more than 100 dead or missing and drove 25,000 from their homes, knocking down buildings, tossing ships and giant cranes around like bathroom toys and triggering floods.
Typhoon Maemi, or "cicada" in Korean, tore into southern parts of the peninsula on Friday night, packing record winds of up to 216 kph and crunching everything in its path before heading out to sea yesterday.
Rescuers were desperately trying to reach a dozen people trapped in a karaoke bar in the basement of a collapsed shopping centre in the southern city of Masan, YTN Television said. Eight bodies have been found so far.
Thousands of rescue workers and soldiers were searching for at least 24 people listed as missing and helping to repair toppled telecom towers and washed out roads, an official at the National Disaster Prevention Council said.
"The death toll is likely to rise further as the rescue teams still report dead bodies floating on the rivers and the oceans," Shin Sang-yong, an official at the council said.
The typhoon mauled South Korea's main port of Pusan, one of Asia's busiest, with damage expected to climb into tens of millions of dollars.
The disaster office said at least 78 people died, mostly due to electrocution, landslides and drowning.
Tidal waves heaved a cruise liner onto a popular Pusan beach.
The storm knocked down 1000-tonne cranes and smashed boats against each other. At least 82 vessels sank in huge seas and fishing boats were stacked like driftwood on shore roads.
The typhoon halted operations at four nuclear power plants, cutting electricity to 1.4 million homes, as the country celebrated the three-day thanksgiving festival of Chusok. They are expected to resume operations tomorrow.
Up to 453 mm of rain was dumped across some areas. Authorities issued flood warnings along the Nakdong river, which flows through the centre and south of the country, as overflowing dams had to open floodgates.
About 25,000 people had to be evacuated, the disaster office said.