SEOUL: A military manhunt was underway yesterday for a South Korean soldier who shot and killed five members of his own unit at a guard post on the border with North Korea.
“He shot dead five fellow soldiers, wounded five others and then fled the scene with his rifle and ammunition,” an army spokesman said.
There was no immediate indication of what might have triggered the shooting, which occurred shortly after 1200 GMT at a guard post on the eastern section of the heavily-guarded inter-Korean border.
The post was located just outside the demilitarised zone (DMZ) — a buffer strip that runs the full length of the 250km frontier.
The spokesman said the five wounded soldiers were taken to a military hospital and a manhunt had been launched for the armed renegade guard.
Many of the South Korean soldiers on border duty are young recruits doing their mandatory military service.
The army has taken strong steps in recent years to stamp out bullying of new conscripts, which has been blamed for similar shooting incidents in the past as well as a number of suicides.
In July 2011, a 19-year-old Marine doing his military service killed four colleagues in a shooting spree on Ganghwa island near the border. AFP
