One Dead, Fifteen Injured in Island Attack

[imText1]Due to North Korea’s 21-minute long attack on Yeonpyeong Island this afternoon, one marine has been killed, three seriously injured and a further ten slightly injured. Two island residents have been hurt.

Meanwhile, an investigation into the scale of other damage is ongoing. Approximately 11 out of a total of 600 homes on the island were on fire as of 4:30 PM, but the fires are reportedly spreading. According to one resident interviewed by YTN over the phone, “It seems that all the houses are going to burn” because they are grouped together and efforts to extinguish those on fire have not been able to get underway. Additional fires are burning in wooded areas of the island.

Residents have reportedly been evacuated from the settlement on the island into 20 shelters.

South Korea’s armed forces have been put on emergency alert, while the region including the five islands in the West Sea has been put on Jindo-I, the highest alert used in times of war.