'120 killed' in arson attack on South Korean train

Fire raged through two packed underground trains in South Korea today after a man lit a carton filled with an inflammable material. Police and firefighters expect the death toll to reach 120.

A suspect was under interrogation in Daegu, South Korea's third-largest city, but police still did not know what motivated the attack.

The fire started in one six-carriage train at a station, igniting seats and spreading to another train also stopped at the station. Many more bodies were still in the obliterated remains of the trains, a fire department official said.

"We are receiving reports from firefighters at the scene that there are about 100 bodies inside the train cars," said Chung Myong-sook, an official with the fire department in Daegu.

Firefighters gave horrifying accounts of the scene underground, with victims asphyxiated as they tried to escape up the stairs. On the platform were the ashen bones of those trapped in the flames.

Chung Sook-jae, 54, rushed to the scene after her daughter, 26-year-old Min Shim-eun, telephoned her husband to say she was suffocating. Then the line went dead.

"She never caused any problems. She was a good kid. Why does this have to happen her?" Chung said, crying. "If she's not out by now, she's probably dead. What am I going to do if her body is all burned out of recognition?"

Police were interrogating Kim Dae-han, 56, who witnesses said carried the carton into the subway car. Lieutenant Kim Byong-hak said: "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.".

Authorities said that the fire was put out three hours after it started, but toxic gas in the tunnel delayed rescue efforts. The acrid odor of burned plastic wafted over the scene hours later.

The television station YTN aired footage of the chaotic scene inside a nearby hospital, showing nurses attending to a man who was reportedly the suspect. The man sat frowning on a bed wearing a hospital smock, his face and hands smudged with soot.

Yu Heung-soo, a police sergeant in Daegu, said Kim had been burned on both legs and the right wrist. But a doctor told YTN that the man's only injury was toxic gas inhalation.

YTN also reported that the suspect worked as truck driver and had once threatened to burn down the hospital where he had received unsatisfactory treatment. The station did not cite sources.

In the minutes after the fire began, thick black smoke billowed out of the subway's ventilator shafts. Downtown traffic came to a standstill as ambulances rushed to the scene. Firefighters wearing orange suits and oxygen tanks rushed into the subway.

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

Rescuers brought victims, their faces and clothes black with soot, up to the street in stretchers and slid them into ambulances. One witness recounted the terrifying scene inside the subway 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," an unidentified male survivor told YTN. "Several young men seized him, but the fire spread and black smoke rose. Then everyone rushed out."

The injured were rushed to nearby hospitals, but details of their conditions were not known, said Kim, the police officer. YTN reported that some of the injured were in serious condition.

One man told YTN that his friend called on his cell phone and said he was trapped inside one of the cars. The unidentified man told YTN that he had called subway officials and they were unaware of the fire at the time.

President Kim Dae-jung ordered the government to consider designating the accident site as a special disaster zone, which would give it priority in receiving government aid and other assistance.

Daegu, one of the 10 World Cup soccer venues last year, has a population of 2.5 million.