Two South Korean fighter jets accidentally dropped eight bombs on a civilian area during a joint live-fire exercise with the U.S. military on Thursday, injuring eight people, officials said.

The MK-82 bombs released by the KF-16 fighter jets fell outside a firing range, the air force said in a statement. It apologized and expressed hopes for a speedy recovery of the injured and said it would offer compensation and take other necessary steps.

The air force said the fighter jets were taking part in the one-day firing drill with the U.S. military in Pocheon, a city close to the heavily armed border with North Korea.

The air force also said a committee would investigate the accident and examine the scale of the damage inflicted.

An unidentified air force official told local reporters that a pilot of one of the KF-16s had entered wrong coordinates for a bombing site. An unidentified Defense Ministry official told reporters that further investigation was needed to determine why the second KF-16 also dropped bombs on a civilian area.

In a televised briefing, Pocheon Mayor Paek Young Hyeun called the bombings �awful� and urged the military to halt drills in the city until it formulates reliable steps that can prevent a recurrence. He said that Pocheon, a city of 140,000 people, provides three major firing ranges for the South Korean and U.S. militaries.

Park Seong-sook, a 70-year-old eyewitness who was not hurt in the bombing, said she thought �a war has broken out.�

�It was such a loud sound,� she said, adding that it left her trembling with fear.

The military said later Thursday it has decided to suspend all live-fire drills across South Korea.

The accident came just before the South Korean and U.S. militaries announced they will begin large-scale annual military drills next Monday.

It’s unclear how long the suspension of the live-fire training would last, but observers said it would likely be until the military determines the cause of Thursday�s accident and maps out preventative steps.

Pocheon�s disaster response department said six civilians and two soldiers were injured and were being treated at hospitals. Four of the injured � all civilians � were in serious condition, the department said. Two of the seriously injured are foreigners, one from Thailand and the other from Myanmar.

Three houses, a Catholic church and a greenhouse were partially damaged but they did not appear to have been directly hit by the bombs, according to the department.

(AP)