More than 130 killed in Korea subway attack

More than 130 people are feared dead today after a man started a fire on a subway train in South Korea’s third-largest city.

A fire department official said at least 100 bodies have been found in the train. “We are receiving reports from firefighters at the scene that there are at least 100 bodies inside the train cars,” said Chung Myong-sook.

YTN television said some of the bodies were only skeletons. More than 130 people were rushed to hospitals around Daegu, 200 miles south-east of the capital Seoul.

A man was under arrest, but police said they had no idea what motivated the attack. Firefighters took three hours to extinguish the blaze, which sent thick black smoke pouring from the entrance of one station.

TV footage showed the charred frames of the subway carriages. The seats in were burned away, revealing their steel frames, and the subway platform was strewn with discarded shoes and other belongings.

Witnesses said Kim Dae-han, 46, was carrying a milk carton filled with flammable material when he boarded the subway train.

Police were still not sure exactly what was in the milk 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,” a police spokesman said.

One witness described the terrifying scene 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,” one male survivor said.

“Several young men seized him, but the fire spread and black smoke rose. Then everyone rushed out.”

YTN television showed footage of the chaotic scenes at a nearby hospital, apparently showing the suspect being treated by nurses.

He sat frowning on a bed wearing what appeared to be a hospital smock, his face and hands smudged from soot from the fire. Yu Heung-soo, a Daegu police sergeant, said Kim had been burned on both legs and on his right wrist.

YTN said the suspect worked as truck driver and had once threatened to burn down a hospital where he had received unsatisfactory treatment

In the minutes after the fire began, traffic came to a standstill in the city centre as ambulances rushed to the scene. Firefighters wearing oxygen tanks rushed down into the subway.

Officials said 3,200 people, including more than 2,000 firefighters and police, had been mobilised to fight the blaze and rescue victims.

Kim Bok-sun, 45, said her missing daughter, 21-year-old Kang Yeon-ju, was on the burning train and had telephoned her 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.”

The subway was filled with toxic gas, hindering rescue operations.

One man said his friend called on his mobile phone and said he was trapped inside one of the carriages. The man said he had called subway officials and they were unaware of the fire at the time.

Daegu, one of the 10 World Cup football venues last year, has a population of 2.5 million. The city is also a venue for this year’s World University Games on August 21-31.

In 1995, a gas explosion in a subway construction site in the city killed 101 people and injured 143 others.

In South Korea’s last major fire disaster, 55 people were killed in a beer hall in Incheon, near Seoul, in October 1999.