![\"Panic](\"https:\/\/c.ndtvimg.com\/2022-10\/40jri4j8_south-korea-missile_625x300_05_October_22.jpg\"\/ "\\"Panic")
<\/div>\nSecurity allies Seoul and Washington have staged multiple joint drills, including missile launches<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Seoul: <\/b><\/p>\n
A failed ballistic missile launch sparked panic in a usually quiet South Korean city after it crashed into the ground and triggered a huge fire, officials said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Security allies Seoul and Washington have staged multiple joint drills, including bombing runs and missile launches, in response to North Korea firing an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) over Japan on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The South Korean military fired a Hyunmoo-2 short-range ballistic missile late Tuesday but it malfunctioned and crashed shortly after launch.<\/p>\n
The missile’s propellant caught fire but its warhead did not detonate, a South Korean military official told the Yonhap news agency.<\/p>\n
Viral social media footage — which AFP could not verify — showed an orange ball of flames at an area users said was near an air force base close to Gangneung on the country’s east coast.<\/p>\n
“Many frantic residents called the city hall,” an official at the Gangneung City Hall told AFP.<\/p>\n
“At first we didn’t know what was going on because we didn’t receive any notice from the military about such training,” she added, speaking on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
South and North Korea remain technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.<\/p>\n
Armed conflicts between the two neighbours are rare, but the missile crash made some residents believe that war had broken out.<\/p>\n
“I thought there was a war but it turns out to be a military training,” said one user on Twitter.<\/p>\n
“What took them so long to confirm? If there is a war, we will probably find out about it the next day,” another user tweeted.<\/p>\n
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said there were no reported casualties and that it was looking into the cause of the crash.<\/p>\n
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n