More than half of people feel unsafe living in South Korea, with many of them citing "man-made" disasters as the biggest cause for concern, a government survey showed Thursday. 
   
The biennial survey seems to reflect a series of recent deadly accidents, many of which have been blamed on a lack of appropriate safety measures. They include the April ferry sinking that left more than 300 people dead.
  
According to the survey of 37,000 people by Statistics Korea, 50.9 percent said that they are worried about the overall safety conditions in South Korea, up from 37 percent in the previous poll in 2012. 
   
Only 9.5 percent said that they feel safe living in South Korea, which was also down from 13.7 percent two years ago. 
   
Safety concerns were higher in almost all categories.
  

Of those polled, 51.3 percent cited building collapses, explosions and other man-made disasters as the biggest safety concerns when living in South Korea. The figure in 2012 was 21.3 percent. 
   
"We had more deadly accidents than usual this year, which seems to be reflected in this survey," an agency official said. 
  
"Also, as we conducted this survey in May when people were still grieving for the loss of so many people in the ferry accident, the concerns about safety inevitably rose," she added.
  
Meanwhile, more people worried about national security. The survey showed that 51.6 percent see war or a nuclear crisis involving North Korea as a major safety concern. 
   
Computer hacking and infectious diseases were also cited as major risks.
   
The survey showed that 62.8 percent are worried about their personal information being stolen through computer hacking. This is up from 48 percent in 2012.
   
About 55 percent said that they feel unsafe from infectious diseases, a rise from 47.4 percent in the previous survey. (Yonhap)