Rental car crashes through guardrail, down cliff, in Korea

A rental car crashed through wooden guardrails of a coastal road and fell from a 200-meter seaside cliff in Geoje, South Gyeongsang, on Thursday morning. All four people in the car were found dead.

The site of the rental car crash in Geoje, South Gyeongsang on Thursday morning [SOUTH GYEONGSANG FIRE DEPARTMENT]

A rental car crashed through wooden guardrails of a coastal road and fell down a 200-meter seaside cliff in Geoje, South Gyeongsang, on Thursday morning. All four people in the car were found dead.

An emergency call came in at 10:48 a.m. on Thursday reporting a sports utility vehicle found below the cliff of a coastal road, according to the Geoje Police Station and South Gyeongsang Fire Department. Four bodies were found as far away as 100 meters from the crash site.

The vehicle was first found by a ranger of Hallyeohaesang National Marine Park who was on patrol. He saw the car demolished below a 200-meter cliff while checking up on damaged wooden guardrails along the road.

The victims were all unrelated males, two in their 20s and one each in their 40s and 50s. Local authorities are investigating how they met and what caused the accident. The car was owned by a rental company in Busan.

Geoje police believe that the accident occurred around 3:40 a.m. as CCTVs in the area captured the vehicle arrive at site around that time.

The investigators are opened to all possibilities including suicide.

The local authorities are trying to understand the full account of the accident through CCTVs as the rental car did not have a black box.

BY SOHN DONG-JOO [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]