Red Cross say 54 killed in North Korea train crash

8.50pm

UPDATE - BEIJING - A blast believed to have been caused by explosives on rail wagons has killed 54 people and injured 1,249 people in North Korea, a Red Cross spokesman said on Friday.

John Sparrow, a regional delegation spokesman for the IFRC in Beijing, said 1,850 households were levelled by the blast near the centre of the town of Ryongchon, and another 6,350 homes were partly destroyed.

The number of casualties could climb as rescue crews combed through the rubble.

"That figure could increase, obviously," Sparrow said of the death toll after speaking to Red Cross officials at the scene of the accident.

The disaster was caused by rail cars laden with explosives, possibly for mining, he said.

Earlier, South Korea's unification minister said casualties were numerous but it was too early to give accurate figures.

In South Korea's first official briefing on Thursday's collision of two fuel-laden trains, Jeong Se-hyun told reporters Seoul would urge the international community to provide aid to the communist North. Initial reports had put the number of dead and injured at around 3,000.

"What can be said now is there was an explosion and there is a large number of dead and injured," Jeong said, stressing that many details remained unconfirmed.

North Korea had not yet confirmed the incident but Seoul considered it a fact and believed it was accidental, he said.

"Accidents like this usually take a long time to determine the damage," he said.

Jeong said the full extent of damage could not be known without announcements from North Korea and a survey of the site.

China's Foreign Ministry said the crash explosion had killed one Chinese resident in the area and injured 12, two seriously.

The ministry said on its website that more than 20 homes of Chinese living in Ryongchon were levelled by the blast.

The Foreign Ministry said it was paying close attention to the situation. The department of Asian affairs and the Chinese embassy in Pyongyang had launched emergency measures.

Overseas reports had estimated up to 3000 people were killed or injured.

North Korea has asked China for help in rescue operations after two fuel-laden trains collided and exploded near the border yesterday.

"They have already asked for help, but we can't give more details. We must report it to the provincial government," an official with the Dandong city government told Reuters by telephone.

Dandong is in northeastern China, close to the North Korean border.

A cross-border train carrying a large number of Chinese residents was at a North Korean train station when two fuel-laden trains collided and exploded, a South Korean newspaper reported today.

The JoongAng Ilbo did not say how many Chinese were aboard the train parked at Ryongchon station near the Chinese border, when the two trains collided.



"A passenger train that connects China and North Korea and was carrying many Chinese living in the North was stopped at the station when the accident happened," the newspaper said.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency, which spoke of widespread destruction, said there were thousands of casualties and some form of emergency had been declared in the area near the border with China.

"The station was destroyed as if hit by a bombardment and debris flew high into the sky," Yonhap said, quoting unidentified Chinese sources.

Neither Yonhap nor YTN gave a breakdown of deaths and injuries and there was no independent confirmation of the reports. Communist North Korea, one of the world's most reclusive and impoverished countries, has not said anything on the disaster.

Yonhap quoted sources in the Chinese city of Dandong that borders the North as saying the explosion occurred around 1pm (4pm Thursday NZT) nine hours after a special train carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was reported to have passed on its way to Pyongyang after a visit to China.

The sources said trains carrying petrol and liquefied petroleum gas collided at Ryongchon station, 16km south of the Yalu river border near the Yellow Sea.

There were rumours the fuel was a gift from China to Kim and his energy-starved country, Yonhap said.

Ryongchon is transliterated as Yongchon in South Korea and appears that way on most maps in the West.

Yonhap also quoted a senior Defence Ministry official as saying the South's military, which eavesdrops on North Korea, had heard about the blast through "intelligence channels directed against the North".

There was no immediate suggestion the blast was anything other than an accident.

But the explosion came after Kim met China's new leadership during a rare foreign visit to discuss the North's nuclear weapons plans, tentative economic reforms and aid that has in the past included fuel.

North Korea's official media made no mention of the disaster, but earlier Thursday they broke their silence on Kim's three-day trip to Beijing, strongly suggesting he was safely back in Pyongyang.

International telephone lines to the area appeared to have been cut to prevent information about the explosion getting out, Yonhap added.

The North's creaking medical system would be hard pressed to cope with a large number of casualties, but there was no word any international agency or neighbouring country had been asked for help.

Yonhap said the Chinese sources said people in Dandong were concerned their friends or relatives could have been caught up in the blast. Traders from both sides criss-cross the border area.

- REUTERS