About 120 people were killed in South Korea and scores were missing yesterday after flames and smoke engulfed two crowded subway trains following an arson attack, officials said.
The mayor of the southeastern city of Daegu said a 56-year-old male with a history of mental illness was suspected of starting the blaze at the end of the morning rush hour.
A witness said the man had set fire to flammable liquid in a milk carton and tossed it into a carriage.
PHOTO: AP
Officials said a second train pulled into the station as the blaze took hold. The two trains, each with six carriages, had a total of up to 400 people on board.
Daegu Fire Chief Kim Shin-dong told reporters there were more than 70 unidentified charred bodies in the burned-out subway cars, which together with an official figure of 49 dead from hospitals took the toll to around 120.
Figures had switched throughout the day, with many bodies burnt so badly they were impossible to identify immediately.
PHOTO: AP
An official at the Daegu Emergency Rescue Center had said earlier that 134 people had died. Scores of people were still unaccounted for and feared dead.
Many struggled in vain to escape the inferno that reduced the trains to metal skeletons and sent black, acrid smoke belching into the sky for hours after the fire started.
Television footage showed rescuers covering up charred bodies in the ash and soot-filled carriages, a burnt shoe among the wreckage. At street level, relatives and friends gathered anxiously to look through a list of names or held each other and cried.
The number of injured on a board at the emergency center was put at 135, with 159 missing. It was unclear whether the missing included the 70 corpses the fire chief said were still in the trains.
Rescue official Lee Hyong-kyun said the fire ignited seat fabric and floor tiles.
"If you ignite a flammable liquid like gasoline inside a closed space, what you'll get is something very close to an explosion," he said. "There would have been hardly any time to escape."
As dense smoke billowed from subway air vents, soot-covered firefighters in orange suits and with breathing apparatus dragged bodies and the injured up blackened stairwells.
One man, whose wife was trapped by the inferno, told South Korean television he had received a desperate call from her mobile phone.
"Help me," he quoted her as saying. "There's a fire on the subway. The door is locked."
It was a heart-wrenching call others were to make.
"My daughter called me twice at 9.57am crying `mother there's smoke everywhere, but the door won't open!" said a woman at a makeshift crisis center outside Daegu's Joongangro Station.
Rescue officials said they would tow the carriages to a hub station yesterday evening so forensic experts could examine victims' remains.
A fireman in Daegu, which is 300km southeast of Seoul, said the trains had been gutted.
"Everything is gone," said Sung Bo-hun, who was inside the subway until 7:40pm. "You can't recognize the people inside. It is all black and grey."
Telephone firms were helping people find out for sure if their relatives were on the trains by tracing mobile-phone signals.
More than 100 people were killed and another 100 injured in a gas explosion on Daegu's only subway line in 1995.
Yonhap quoted one witness as saying passengers had tried in vain to tackle the suspect in yesterday's blaze. Another said many passengers were trapped behind closed doors.
"When the fire broke out, the people close to the gap between the cars appear to have escaped, but those in the middle of the carriage were helpless," a fireman said.
Most of those injured were being treated for smoke inhalation.
SECURITY: As China is ‘reshaping’ Hong Kong’s population, Taiwan must raise the eligibility threshold for applications from Hong Kongers, Chiu Chui-cheng said When Hong Kong and Macau citizens apply for residency in Taiwan, it would be under a new category that includes a “national security observation period,” Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. President William Lai (賴清德) on March 13 announced 17 strategies to counter China’s aggression toward Taiwan, including incorporating national security considerations into the review process for residency applications from Hong Kong and Macau citizens. The situation in Hong Kong is constantly changing, Chiu said to media yesterday on the sidelines of the Taipei Technology Run hosted by the Taipei Neihu Technology Park Development Association. With
CARROT AND STICK: While unrelenting in its military threats, China attracted nearly 40,000 Taiwanese to over 400 business events last year Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure. China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view. Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of
A US Marine Corps regiment equipped with Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) is set to participate in the upcoming Balikatan 25 exercise in the Luzon Strait, marking the system’s first-ever deployment in the Philippines. US and Philippine officials have separately confirmed that the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) — the mobile launch platform for the Naval Strike Missile — would take part in the joint exercise. The missiles are being deployed to “a strategic first island chain chokepoint” in the waters between Taiwan proper and the Philippines, US-based Naval News reported. “The Luzon Strait and Bashi Channel represent a critical access
Pope Francis is be laid to rest on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met yesterday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College
RSS