By Ajay Kaul

Seoul, Sep 7 (IANS): Typhoon Lingling on Saturday delayed the return home of India's Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who was on a four-day visit to South Korea, as the Seoul Airport remained inoperable for several hours.

Singh was to return to Delhi by Korean Air flight scheduled at 1.35 p.m. but due to bad weather conditions, it could not take off before 6.35 p.m. (local time).

The Union Minister had arrived here on September 4 after his four-day tour to Japan.

During his visit here, Singh held talks with his counterpart and visited the Demilitarised Zone on the border with North Korea.

Over a dozen flights to and fro Seoul were cancelled and several others delayed by hours as the typhoon hit South Korea on Saturday.

The typhoon brought high speed winds along with rains, disrupting flight operations.

Authorities were ready to deal with any eventuality and people were receiving warning messages on their mobile phones at regular intervals, updating about the progress of the typhoon.

The typhoon hit Japan before moving towards the Korean peninsula.

Among the outgoing flights cancelled were those to Hong Kong, Osaka, Taipei, Dalian, Qingdao, Wehei and Fukuoka.

The delayed flights included thoseto Delhi, Moscow, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Istanbul and Jakarta. These flights were delayed by at least 3 hours.