Authorities warned there was more rain to come even as emergency workers struggled to clear the hulks of flooded cars, which AFP reporters saw strewn across major intersections throughout the city.

Dramatic images shared on social media late on Monday showed people wading through waist-deep water, metro stations overflowing and cars half-submerged in Seoul's posh Gangnam district, which was particularly hard-hit when torrential rain battered the city.

The downpour that began Monday is the heaviest rainfall in South Korea in 80 years, according to Seoul's Yonhap News Agency.

"At least seven people died in the Seoul metropolitan area, while seven others are missing, due to heavy rain," an official at Seoul's Interior Ministry told AFP.

Local reports said three people living in a banjiha – cramped basement flats of the kind made famous in Bong Joon-ho's Oscar-winning "Parasite" – including a teenager, died as their apartment was inundated by floodwaters.

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