Hundreds fall ill after 35°C heat hits World Scout Jamboree with Brits moved to hotels
Thousands of British scouts at the World Scout Jamboree in South Korea are to be moved off camp as a heatwave leaves hundreds of youngsters ill.
The group will be transported to hotels in the capital, Seoul where they will remain until the group’s planned flight home on August 13.
It comes as temperatures topped 35 degrees at Saemangeum, the area of reclaimed land in Buan where around 39,000 mostly teenage scouts and accompanying adults from 155 countries are camping.
At least 600 people have suffered heat-related ailments since the event kicked off on Tuesday, although most were mild said authorities.
A Reuters agency reporter said they had seen several scouts being stretchered off to a treatment centre.
South Korea’s Prime Minister Han Duck-soo told a special cabinet meeting to approve spending 6 billion won (£4.1 million) to support the jamboree.
He said: ‘The government will use all its resources to ensure that the jamboree can end safely amid the heatwave.’
The extra money will cover more water trucks, air conditioned spaces including buses and medics, said officials.
A statement on the UK Scouts website said its group will be moved into hotels ‘over the next two days’ to ‘alleviate the pressure on the site overall’.
It continued: ‘While we have been on site at the Jamboree, the UK volunteer team has worked extremely hard with the organisers, for our youth members and adult volunteers to have enough food and water to sustain them, shelter from the unusually hot weather, and toilets and washing facilities appropriate for an event of this scale.’
The statement said the UK contingency would continue activities in Seoul, with the help of local authorities, until flying home in just over a week.
With the heatwave forecast to last until next week, a number of people, including parents, have questioned whether the jamboree, which is due to run until August 12, should continue.
Organisers, however, said they were modifying the schedule depending on the temperature, adding that the scouts remained resilient.
‘Despite the heat and the difficulties and the challenges that they are facing, only 8% reported that they were very unsatisfied with the experience so far,’ Jacob Murray, the director for World Events at the Scouts, told reporters.
This is the first global scout gathering since the start of the pandemic.
The event comes a few weeks after the South Korean government was criticised for its handling of floods which left more than 40 people dead.
Some residents of Buan said authorities should have been better prepared for the heat.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.