Firefighters and residents battled a wildfire triggered by North Korea's artillery attack that continued to burn hills on Yeonpyeong Island as hundreds of the elderly people and children were in evacuation at air-raid shelters, officials said Wednesday.
North Korea's bombardment on the island, just a few kilometers south of the tense Yellow Sea border, killed two marines and destroyed scores of houses Tuesday afternoon. The bombs also left nearly 70 percent of forests and fields on the rural island destroyed, the disaster control office at Incheon, the island's administrative government, said.
Some 20 fire trucks and more than 80 firefighters were deployed to the island to contain the fire, Incheon officials said.
Incheon Mayor Song Young-gil was visiting Yeonpyeong Island consoling residents, soldiers and civil servants engaging in recovery efforts. More than 1,300 residents were still staying at the island after hundreds were moved to Incheon on Tuesday afternoon. Some 760 elderly people and children remained in air-raid shelters on the island.
Emergency food and water were being transported to the island, and marine
soldiers and communication engineers were deployed to help recover destroyed facilities.
Passenger vessels operating to Yeonpyeong Island and other nearby islands off the west coast of Incheon were indefinitely suspended.
For police stations close to the inter-Korean border, the National Police Agency issued the Eulho alert, the second-highest level for the country's police force, to be ready to deal with possible provocations by North Korea.
A total of 11 police stations in Gyeonggi Province and Gangwon Province were posted the Eulho alert.
The Eulho puts half of available police forces on emergency standby, while the highest alert, Gapho, assigns the entire force to the condition.
Cho Hyun-oh, the National Police Agency commissioner general, ordered the police to strengthen their watch at major facilities across the country and along the coastlines of remote islands of Jeju, Ulleung, Dokdo and Gageo.
Police were also investigating false mobile text messages that began to circulate after the North Korean attack, saying reserve forces were being mobilized across the country.