North Korea rail explosion leaves 3,000 dead

SOME 3,000 people were dead or injured after two trains carrying fuel collided and exploded at a North Korean railway station near the Chinese border yesterday.

The collision ignited a deafening explosion that rained debris for more than 10 miles around, South Korean media reported.

The secretive communist government in Pyongyang declared an emergency while cutting off international telephone lines to prevent details of the crash from leaking out, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.