N Korea crash site 'obliterated'

A Red Cross worker at the scene of a devastating train explosion in North Korea said the immediate area around the site was "obliterated," a group spokesman said.

John Sparrow, a Red Cross spokesman in Beijing, said damage from Thursday's explosion near the Chinese border was spread out within a radius of 2.5 miles.

"The railroad station and the immediate surroundings were obliterated," said Mr Sparrow, who received information from an aid worker at the site.

Jay Matta, a Red Cross worker in Pyongyang, described "a crater as though a fireball" had hit, Sparrow said.

Normally secretive North Korean officials told foreign diplomats and relief organisations that hundreds of people were killed and thousands injured in the blast at the railway town of Ryongchon.

In the first report datelined from the site, China's official Xinhua News Agency said at least 154 people were confirmed dead, half of them students, and 1,300 were injured.