Heavy rain pounding the country had unleashed the landslide that buried two houses in a village in southern Sancheong county, officials said.

"At least three people have been reported missing, two people are in cardiac arrest and three people were killed," the national fire agency said in a statement, adding that 17 people have been rescued so far.

Sancheong county authorities told its 34,000 residents Saturday to "evacuate immediately to a safe area".

South Korea typically experiences monsoon rains in July, but the country's southern regions saw some of the heaviest hourly downpours on record this week, official weather data showed.

Beyond the fatalities from Saturday's landslide, at least four other people have been killed in rain-related accidents in the last days. More than 7,000 have also been forced to evacuate their homes.

South Korea is regularly hit by flooding during the summer monsoon period, but is typically well-prepared, with the death toll usually relatively low.

Scientists say climate change has made weather events around the world more extreme and frequent.

The country endured record-breaking rains and flooding in 2022 which killed at least 11 people.