Fifteen people in South Korea were injured—two of them seriously—after a pair of fighter jets mistakenly dropped eight bombs in a civilian area during a live-fire military drill on Thursday, local media reported.
The incident, which took place in Pocheon, a city near the North Korean border, involved South Korean Air Force KF-16 aircraft participating in routine drills aimed at maintaining combat readiness against potential threats from the North.
South Korea’s Air Force has launched an investigation and apologized for the mishap, pledging to compensate those affected.
While shells from military exercises occasionally land near civilian areas, such incidents rarely result in injuries.
According to reports, two individuals sustained fractures in their necks and shoulders. Yonhap News Agency reported that a 60-year-old driver was struck by shrapnel in the neck when the explosion occurred.
“I was driving when I heard a ‘bang’,” the injured individual recounted. “When I woke up, I was in an ambulance.”
In a statement to the BBC, South Korea’s Air Force explained that “our KF-16 (fighter jet) abnormally dropped eight shells of MK-82 bombs. It landed outside of firing range.”
The military confirmed that one pilot had entered incorrect coordinates, leading to the unintended release of bombs in the civilian district.
The reason the second jet also dropped its bombs remains under investigation. As a precaution, all live-fire exercises have been suspended.
The explosions caused significant damage, with a church and several homes among the affected buildings. Images circulating in local media showed shattered windows and a damaged church roof.
A local resident told Yonhap that he had been watching television when the explosion, which sounded “like a thunderclap,” shook his house.
The director of a senior citizen care center described the scene as chaotic, saying that windows shattered, and one staff member had to be taken to the hospital.
“While no seniors were hurt,” the director noted, “they were so frightened that we sent them all home.”
Initially, authorities evacuated residents while a bomb disposal team assessed the area for unexploded ordnance.
However, later reports confirmed that no unexploded bombs were found at the site, according to Yonhap.
South Korea’s defense ministry stated that the drill was part of joint military training with U.S. forces.
The upcoming combined exercises between South Korea and the U.S., scheduled from March 10 to March 20, will be the first since Donald Trump returned to the White House.
The drills come amid heightened concerns over North Korea’s growing ties with Russia.
This is not the first time a joint drill has led to an accident. In 2022, a malfunction during an exercise caused a South Korean short-range ballistic missile to crash on a golf course inside a military base.
Although the warhead did not detonate, the crash triggered a fire and spread panic among nearby residents.
Source-BBC
