Some 1,400 Swiss scouts have been relocated from the site of the world's largest scout camp in South Korea after typhoon warnings.
“Apart from a few team leaders and other adults, most of the participants have left the camp and are on their way by bus to Seoul,” Barbara Hochuli, spokeswoman for the Swiss scout delegation, told the Keystone-SDA news agency on Tuesday.
Switzerland has one of the largest delegations of the 25th World Scout Jamboree, which was scheduled to take place in the coastal region of Saemangeum, some 180 km southwest of the capital, from August 1 to 12.
South Korean authorities announced on Tuesday that it had mobilised around 1,000 buses to transport some 40,000 scouts to Seoul and other inland regions after the weather service said a powerful typhoon was headed toward the country.
According to Hochuli, the Swiss scouts will be lodged in student residences across eight sites in the capital Seoul. “The event will not be cancelled and the closing party will take place as planned on August 11, but certainly in Seoul,” she told Swiss public television SRF on Monday.
She regretted, however, that participants didn’t learn of the programme change until after the media did. “People are running after information.”
The Swiss scouts will return to Switzerland as originally planned on August 12 and 13.