South Korean jet accidentally bombs church during drills

Seven people in South Korea were injured, four of them seriously, after a fighter jet accidentally dropped eight bombs in a civilian district during a live-fire military exercise.

The incident involving the Air Force KF-16 aircraft took place at around 10:04 local time (01:04 GMT) in the city of Pocheon, near the border with North Korea.

Only one bomb is believed to have exploded. A bomb disposal team is working on safely disposing the other seven unexploded bombs, Pocheon authorities told the BBC. They said residents living near the area have been evacuated.

While shells from live firing exercises sometimes land near civilian residences, they rarely cause injuries.

According to local media reports, two people suffered fractures to their necks and shoulders.

A 60-year-old who was driving when the explosion happened had shrapnel lodged in their neck, Yonhap reported.

"I was driving when I heard a 'bang'," they said. "When I woke up, I was in an ambulance."

"Our KF-16 (jet fighter) abnormally dropped 8 shells of MK-82 bombs. It landed outside of firing range," said Korea's Air Force in a statement to the BBC.

It said that it was investigating the incident and apologised for the damage, adding it would provide compensation to those affected.

Yang Uk, a military expert and research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, told the BBC that if bombs may not explode if they "are dropped at an altitude lower than planned".

One church building and houses were also damaged as a result of the incident.

Images published on local media show a broken window of a building and damaged roof of the church.

A local resident told Yonhap that he had been watching television at home when the explosion, which sounded "like a thunderclap", shook the house.

The director of a nearby senior citizen care centre said that the building's windows shattered and one of their teachers was taken to hospital with injuries. While no seniors were hurt, they said, "they were so frightened that we sent them all home".

The defence ministry said the training on Thursday was related to a joint drill with US forces.

South Korea and the US are set to run combined drills from March 10 to March 20 - the first since US president Donald Trump's return to the White House. This comes at a time when the two countries are increasingly wary of the growing alliance between North Korea and Russia.

During another joint drill by South Korea and the US in 2022, troops fired a short-range ballistic missile which malfunctioned and crashed on a golf course in the military base. While the warhead did not explode, it still burst into flames and sent panic rippling across residents in the area.