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100 Feared Dead in S. Korea Subway Arson
1 minute ago
By SOO-JEONG LEE, Associated Press Writer
DAEGU, South Korea - Fire raced through several subway cars packed with people Tuesday after a man lit a carton filled with flammable material that burst into flames, South Korean officials said. Police said at least 49 people died, but firefighters saw 100 bodies still in the wreckage.
Television footage of the scene in Daegu, South Korea (news - web sites)'s third-largest city, showed the charred frames of the subway cars, their seats burned away. The platform was strewn with discarded shoes and other belongings.
"We are receiving reports from firefighters at the scene that there are about 100 bodies inside the train cars," said Chung Myong-sook, an official with the fire department in Daegu.
A suspect was under interrogation, but police still did not know what motivated the attack. Rescue workers had given up the search for survivors by the afternoon.
Firefighters gave horrifying accounts of the scene underground: bodies of victims asphyxiated as they tried to escape up the stairs; on the platform were the ashen bones of those trapped in the flames.
The fire began when a man set alight a milk carton filled with an unidentified flammable liquid in a six-car train at a station. The fire spread to another train also stopped at the station, officials said.
Police were interrogating Kim Dae-han, 46, who witnesses said carried the carton into the subway car, according to Kim Byong-hak, a police lieutenant in Daegu. Police still did not know what precisely was in the carton.
"When the man tried to use a cigarette lighter to light the box, some passengers tied to stop him. Apparently a scuffle erupted and the box exploded into flames," the officer said.
Authorities said that the fire was put out by 1 p.m., about three hours after it started, but toxic gas in the tunnel delayed rescue efforts, the Yonhap news agency said. The acrid odor of burned plastic still wafted over the fire scene hours after the flames had been put out.
The television station YTN aired footage of the chaotic scene inside a nearby hospital reportedly showing the suspect being attended to by nurses. The man sat frowning on a bed wearing a hospital smock, his face and hands smudged from soot from the fire.
Yu Heung-soo, a police sergeant in Daegu, said Kim had been burned in both legs and the right wrist. But a doctor told YTN that the man's only injury was toxic gas inhalation.
YTN, without citing sources, also reported that the suspect worked as truck driver and had once threatened to burn down the hospital where he had received unsatisfactory treatment.
In the minutes after the fire began, thick black smoke billowed out of ventilator shafts of the subway. Downtown traffic came to a standstill as ambulances rushed to the scene. Orange suit-clad firefighters wearing oxygen tanks rushed into the subway.
Kim Bok-sun, 45, said her missing daughter, 21-year-old Kang Yeon-ju, was on the burning train and called in panic.
"She only said that there was a fire and the train door wasn't opening, so I told her to just break open a window and get out," she said, her voice trembling with emotion. Kim called her daughter back a few minutes later, "but she never answered the phone.
Rescuers brought victims, their faces and clothes black with soot, up to the street in stretchers and slid them into ambulances. One witness detailed the terrifying scene inside the subway as the fire ignited.
"The man kept flickering a lighter and an old man told him to stop. The man dropped the lighter and the train caught fire," an unidentified male survivor told YTN. "Several young men seized him, but the fire spread and black smoke rose. Then everyone rushed out."
The injured were rushed to nearby hospitals, but details on their conditions were not known, said Kim, the police officer. YTN reported that some of the injured were in serious condition.
One man told YTN that his friend called on his cell phone and said he was trapped inside one of the cars. The unidentified man told YTN that he had called subway officials and they were unaware of the fire at the time.
Daegu, one of the 10 World Cup soccer venues last year, is the third largest city in South Korea with a population of 2.5 million.
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