Fifteen people in South Korea were injured, two of them seriously, after a pair of fighter jets accidentally dropped eight bombs in a civilian district during a live-fire military exercise, local media reported.
The incident involving the Air Force KF-16 aircraft took place at around 10:04 local time (01:04 GMT) in the city of Pocheon, near the border with North Korea.
The MK-82 bombs released by the KF-16 fighter jets fell outside a firing range, causing civilian damage, the air force said in a statement.
Apologising for the accident, the air force said it will establish a committee to investigate why the accident happened and examine the scale of the civilian damage. It said the fighter jets were taking part in the one-day firing drill with the US military. An unidentified air force official told local reporters that a pilot of one of the KF-16s put in a 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.
In a televised briefing, 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 has 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.
Pocheon's disaster response department said six civilians and two soldiers were injured and were being treated at hospitals. Four of the injured - all civilians - were in serious condition, the department said. Two of the seriously injured are foreigners - one from Thailand and the other from Myanmar.
Three houses, a Catholic church and a greenhouse were partially damaged but they did not appear to have been directly hit by the bombs, according to the Pocheon department (with inputs from AP).