Seoul, April 22
North Korea declared a state of emergency after as many as 3,000 people were killed or injured today when two fuel trains collided and exploded at a station near the Chinese border, South Korean media reported.
North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il had reportedly passed through the station as he returned from China nine hours earlier.
The number killed or injured could reach 3,000, South Korea’s all-news cable channel, YTN, reported, citing unidentified sources on the Chinese side of the border.
“The area around Ryongchon station has turned into ruins as if it were bombarded,” South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted witnesses as saying. In a sign of the accident’s magnitude, the government cut international phone lines to prevent news of the crash from leaking across its borders.
— Reuters
