DAEGU, South Korea (CNN) -- Firefighters searching a burned out subway station in South Korea are reported to have found about 100 more bodies inside a wrecked train.
Police suspect the fire in the southern city of Daegu was an arson attack and are questioning a 46-year-old man witnesses say ignited a milk carton filled with a flammable substance in the train.
At least 50 people have been confirmed dead,135 injured, many seriously, and at least 97 are listed as missing. Officials say they expect the death toll to rise much higher.
Fire swept through the train as trapped passengers made last desperate cell phone calls to friends and relatives before they were overcome by smoke, South Korean television reported. With the fire largely extinguished three hours after it was ignited at 0955 (0255GMT), firefighters wearing breathing gear searched the station and surrounding tunnels for those trapped and missing.
Rescuers initially had trouble entering the station to tackle the blaze because of heavy black smoke and toxic gases billowing out of the tunnels.
Among the dead recovered so far are the bodies of 14 subway employees found on a station platform where they had been trapped by the fire.
"A man in his 40s dressed in a tracksuit set fire to a plastic milk carton containing a flammable liquid and threw it inside the subway train," a witness told South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
Police have not given any indication as to the motive for the attack and do not as yet know what was in the carton. But police sources did say the man in custody has a history of mental problems.
One witness told CNN the blaze could have been sparked by accident when an elderly man jostled with the suspect, causing him to drop a cigarette lighter into the milk carton.
In the minutes after the blaze broke out, thick smoke poured from the subway entrances and ventilation shafts.
Dozens of fire engines rushed to the scene and ambulances ferried the injured to hospitals across the city.
YTN, a national cable news channel, reported that some of the injured were in a serious condition, many suffering from the effects of smoke inhalation.
The single subway line runs through the center of Daegu, the third largest city in South Korea with a population of about 2.5 million.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/02/18/skorea.fire/index.html
Police suspect the fire in the southern city of Daegu was an arson attack and are questioning a 46-year-old man witnesses say ignited a milk carton filled with a flammable substance in the train.
At least 50 people have been confirmed dead,135 injured, many seriously, and at least 97 are listed as missing. Officials say they expect the death toll to rise much higher.
Fire swept through the train as trapped passengers made last desperate cell phone calls to friends and relatives before they were overcome by smoke, South Korean television reported. With the fire largely extinguished three hours after it was ignited at 0955 (0255GMT), firefighters wearing breathing gear searched the station and surrounding tunnels for those trapped and missing.
Rescuers initially had trouble entering the station to tackle the blaze because of heavy black smoke and toxic gases billowing out of the tunnels.
Among the dead recovered so far are the bodies of 14 subway employees found on a station platform where they had been trapped by the fire.
"A man in his 40s dressed in a tracksuit set fire to a plastic milk carton containing a flammable liquid and threw it inside the subway train," a witness told South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
Police have not given any indication as to the motive for the attack and do not as yet know what was in the carton. But police sources did say the man in custody has a history of mental problems.
One witness told CNN the blaze could have been sparked by accident when an elderly man jostled with the suspect, causing him to drop a cigarette lighter into the milk carton.
In the minutes after the blaze broke out, thick smoke poured from the subway entrances and ventilation shafts.
Dozens of fire engines rushed to the scene and ambulances ferried the injured to hospitals across the city.
YTN, a national cable news channel, reported that some of the injured were in a serious condition, many suffering from the effects of smoke inhalation.
The single subway line runs through the center of Daegu, the third largest city in South Korea with a population of about 2.5 million.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/02/18/skorea.fire/index.html
