Two South Korean fighter jets accidentally dropped eight bombs in a civilian area during a joint live-fire exercise with the US military Thursday. According to media reports, 15 people were injured in the incident that happened in Pocheon, a city close to the heavily armed border with North Korea.
The MK-82 bombs released by the KF-16 fighter jets fell outside a firing range, causing civilian damage, South Korea's Air Force said in a statement.
"Our KF-16 (jet fighter) abnormally dropped eight shells of MK-82 bombs. It landed outside of firing range," BBC quoted the Air Force statement as saying.
A committee will be set up to investigate why the accident happened and examine the scale of the civilian damage.
An unidentified Air Force official told local reporters that a pilot of one of the KF-16s put in the wrong coordinate for a bombing site. An unidentified defence ministry official also told reporters that more investigation was needed to find why the second KF-16 also dropped bombs on a civilian area.
The Air Force apologised and expressed hopes for a speedy recovery of the injured people and promised to offer compensation for the victims.
According to BBC, people in the area have been evacuated while the bomb disposal team worked to dispose of any unexploded bombs.
Pocheon Mayor Paek Young-hyun called the bombings awful and urged the military to halt drills in the city until it formulates reliable steps that can prevent a recurrence. He said that Pocheon, a city of 140,000 people, provides three major firing ranges for the South Korean and US militaries.
The military later said it decided to suspend all live-fire drills across South Korea. Observers say the military will resume firing exercises after it learns the exact cause of Thursday's accident and maps out steps to prevent recurrences.
Three houses, a Catholic church and a greenhouse were partially damaged but they did not appear to have been directly hit by the bombs, say media reports.