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Up To 3000 Killed In North Korean Fuel Train Disaster
Seoul (AFP) Apr 23, 2004 At least 54 people died and 1,249 were wounded when two trains collided in North Korea, Red Cross officials said, as relief teams headed for the remote disaster area where an explosion levelled high-rise buildings and hurled debris over 20 kilometres (12 miles). "According to preliminary figures, there are 54 dead and 1,249 injured," Red Cross official Niels Juel told AFP in Beijing. "The North Korean Red Cross said the toll could increase." The South Korean government confirmed that two trains carrying fuel collided in the station of the city of Ryongchon on Thursday, triggering a massive blast and heavy casualties. Witnesses said ash and debris were carried over the Chinese border 20 kilometeres to the north. They said the densely-populated area around the station looked as if it had been bombed, and that high-rise buildings had been flattened. "There was an explosion and there were many casualties," South Korean Unification Minister Jeong Se-Hyun said. South Korea 's Yonhap news agency said government officials had confirmed some 3,000 casualties without giving a breakdown of dead or injured. North Korea declared a state of emergency following the blast that occurred just hours after leader Kim Jong-Il passed through the railway station in his armoured private train on his return from China, Yonhap said. Jeong said it was too early to estimate the extent of the damage and the toll of dead and wounded. "It is too premature to talk of the number of casualties," he said. "It will take a considerable time to estimate the extent of the damage." Jeong said that two trains carrying flammable fuel collided in Ryongchon city igniting a huge explosion. "We understand that a collision occurred when the trains carrying fuel oil were changing tracks at the Ryongchon station," he said. The secretive Stalinist government in Pyongyang has yet to formally admit to the disaster and cut international phone lines after the incident. But after nearly 24 hours of silence the authorities asked a Red Cross team to visit the city to assess the scale of the carnage. "They are going to look at the extent of the disaster and they will confirm what the needs are," Red Cross representative for East Asia John Sparrow told AFP in Beijing. China confirmed the blast had occurred and said two of its nationals were killed and 12 injured. A huge pall of smoke was seen billowing into the sky in a satellite photograph taken of the site 18 hours after the explosion and shown on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) website.
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