N korea train blast

[Badgerboy 0]

Quote[/b] ]Up to 3,000 people have been killed or injured in a huge explosion after two fuel trains collided in North Korea, reports say.

The blast happened at Ryongchon station, 50km north of Pyongyang, South Korea's YTN television said.

The incident reportedly happened nine hours after North Korean leader Kim Jong-il passed through the station on his way home from a visit to Beijing.

Mr Kim had been in China to discuss North Korea's nuclear programme.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the colliding trains were carrying gasoline and gas, and that they crashed at around 1300 local time (0400 GMT).

'Bombardment'

The report was based on information from unnamed Chinese sources near the border with North Korea, said news agencies.

It was not possible to obtain independent confirmation of the number of casualties, as North Korea is notoriously secretive and rarely reports its own accidents.

 

World's worst rail disasters  

"The station was destroyed as if hit by a bombardment and debris flew high into the sky," Yonhap quoted its sources as saying.

The BBC's Kevin Kim in the South Korean capital, Seoul, says there are various theories about the explosion, including speculation that it may have been an assassination attempt against the North Korean leader.

However, he says this has been dismissed by the South Korean authorities, who believe it was an accident.

Emergency

Our correspondent says another theory is that liquefied petroleum gas carried in one of the trains was a gift from China to North Korea after Mr Kim's visit to Beijing.

Yonhap said the North Korean authorities had declared a state of emergency in the area and cut off all international telephone lines, apparently to stop news of the accident spreading.

The agency quoted a South Korean defence ministry official as confirming that the explosion had taken place.

But a Chinese railway worker at the Dandong border crossing, contacted by Reuters news agency, said he had not heard of a blast and had seen no signs of any emergency effort under way.

No news from N Korea at this time, they have gone completely quiet.

Linkage

[Gordy 0]

Yeah, I heard all about it.

As I know, the news was brought by chinease border guard and some inteligence agency.

People from Korea were watching regular tv (army singing) without knowing anything.

[Tovarish 0]

I wouldn't expect to hear much from NK news other than "The rice harvest is plentiful and all is well, thanks to our glorious leader". At most, something about South Korean saboteurs.

[havocsquad 0]

Yeah, read about that too, decided not to post it because someone else would. Whoa man, that's a lot of DPRK citizens dead, I'm sure they'll hint that it was caused by evil influneces that vow to destroy the communist regime.

It sounds better on their fictionous history books that some secret spy infilitrated North Korea and did this than to admit that some moron in charge of the trains screwed up.

[ralphwiggum 6]

i grilled my Korean colleauge about this news and some points i dug up.

1. the DPRK dictator's train passed the same placea bout 8-9 hours earlier.

2. there is a refinery nearby about 10 miles away to the west of the station,

3. the trains station was located in a place that is more like a small stop, with a small village.

4. any chinese who were injured are sent across the border, back to china to be treated.

it is my colleagues assesment that the actual death toll would be not so big, but the explosion was.

[theavonlady 2]

This is terrible. Sorry, don't know what else to say. I hope the numbers are way exagerated.

[hellfish6 7]

I imagine that such an explosion when seen from satellites would mimic a low-yield nuclear explosion. I bet pucker factors went up in Cheyenne Mountain.

[havocsquad 0]

Yeah, a lot like the worry factor that was in the beginning of Red Storm Rising when that oil refinery went up like a large FAE was dropped.

[Scorpio 0]

I wouldn't expect  to hear much from NK news other than "The rice harvest is plentiful and all is well, thanks to our glorious leader". At most, something about South Korean saboteurs.

Heheh...good ol' Shogun Total War.

[denoir 0]

Awful 3,000 How is that possible? Did it explode in an urban area?

[Tovarish 0]

Heheh...good ol' Shogun Total War.

Huh? Maybe what I said sounded like a quote from that game, but I've never played it

[Lucretius 0]

the explosion must have been huge to cause such a death toll

how many thousands of tons of fuel must have up in that explosion?

[Donnervogel 0]

From German TV:

There was a group a few weeks ago traveling N-Korea by train. They made pictures of the train station where this is said to have happened.

There is a colliery with huge piles of coal just next to the train station and it's sourrounded by blocks of flats. Now when you imagine that two trains carrying fuel or other fleameable things collide next to heaps of coal this would result in a huge explosion and there are people living just next to it.

Still 3000 is a huge number.

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

Please dont forget that in most western nations there are regulations of how a city should be built, also taking into consideration the risk of industrial accidents or large traffic accidents. I doubt N. Coreas cities have had the funds to do it that way. Just imagine the pressure wave blowing badly constructed building into pieces. I guess the fire then trapped many people and a certain change of wind can can quickly heat up the air around you by several hundred degree Celsius, even if you think you are in a safe distance. There are so many potential death traps!

[Llauma 0]

Please dont forget that in most western nations there are regulations of how a city should be built, also taking into consideration the risk of industrial accidents or large traffic accidents. I doubt N. Coreas cities have had the funds to do it that way. Just imagine the pressure wave blowing badly constructed building into pieces. I guess the fire then trapped many people and a certain change of wind can can quickly heat up the air around you by several hundred degree Celsius, even if you think you are in a safe distance. There are so many potential death traps!

That could happen in western countries too.. A train with gas tanks ran off the trail in my town a few years ago but luckely they didn't explode. This was just in the city center.

**click**

Also there's a huge butane tank in a nearby steal industry which if it would explode would level the town.

[bn880 5]

Terrible stuff, reminds me of an ammo ship that exploded in canada over a hundred years ago, you can look it up.

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

Yeah, but you are from sweden !

No seriously. Gas tanks in germany would not be allowed to be transported in such a quantitiy. Seconldly we rarely mix industrial train stations with public train stations. The speed of trains with dangerous material is relatively slow. Also, our gas is not anymore transported fully by trains. There are mostly underground pipelines installed for that reason. Buildings must have a safe fire-distance one from each other.

It is very unlikely that a normal gas accident would kill more than 100 citizens.

[eisa01 0]

Something like this almost happened in my home town in Norway 5 years ago. The tanks were burning for 3 days or something. Don't remember all the details. Luckily it was in the winter, and that probably kept the tanks from exploding... I can't imagine how my life would have been if they had exploded...

I feel sorry for them

[shinRaiden 0]

In Japan, you'll commonly see frieght trains at any hour sitting on a third track split from the 2 mainlines while passenger trains pass or stop at the platforms. Have that in a main station, at a busy time of day, you can have thousands of people within meters of the cars. iirc, several stations in the tokyo core see over a million people a day, with something like 5~20 million commuters transiting daily on a whole.

The crappy building construction, poor exit capacity, panic situation, and previously mentioned issues considered, 3k could easily be a low number, considering the potential. Reading between the lines though, it seems as though a lot of folks are trying to hint that it was a botched hit on His Exalted most Glorious Excellency, but it's too early to tell.

[Llauma 0]

Yeah, but you are from sweden     !

No seriously. Gas tanks in germany would not be allowed to be transported in such a quantitiy. Seconldly we rarely mix industrial train stations with public train stations. The speed of trains with dangerous material is relatively slow. Also, our gas is not anymore transported fully by trains. There are mostly underground pipelines installed for that reason. Buildings must have a safe fire-distance one from each other.

It is very unlikely that a normal gas accident would kill more than 100 citizens.

We have speed limitations for dangerous goods but the guy was drunk. The safety systems should have stopped the train automaticly but something might always go wrong. Just next to the railroad you have five 10 storey apartment buildings.

These accidents are more likely to happen in less developed countries but they still can happen in the western world.

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

It's all a question of probability, each proactive countermeasure reduces the risk.

[ralphwiggum 6]

the 3000 figure seems to be greatly exaggerated. as i quoted my Korean colleague before, it's a small place, and 3000 number includes injured too.

[ralphwiggum 6]

update.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3651705.stm

this image was taken about 18 hours via satellite.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArt....on=news

Quote[/b] ]Satellite photographs of the town posted on various Web Sites showed it swathed in billowing dark smoke. The CIA's Web Site says Ryongchon has a population of 130,000 and officials in Seoul say there are fuel storage sites in and around the town.

"They have already asked for help, but we can't give more details," a Dandong city government official told Reuters.

The impoverished North's creaking medical system would be hard pressed to cope with a large number of casualties -- particularly complicated burns cases.

A Beijing-based official for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies told Reuters the organization was holding an emergency meeting in Pyongyang. A South Korean Red Cross delegation happens to be on a visit to the North.

<snip>

Station officials and diplomatic sources in Beijing said trains between Pyongyang and Beijing were running normally, but a South Korean businessman in Dandong told YTN television that cross-border train services had been suspended.

The railroad, which dates back to Japanese rule in the early 20th century, goes through Ryongchon, but the collision could have happened on a side track and might not have affected the main line.

[ozanzac 0]

Hard to say how much devestation was caused without a before picture from the same aspect.

[theavonlady 2]

Also don't forget that the sat pic is showing the area where the fire is burning. Now try to estimate the blast and heat wave radius.

I read one report yesterday that debris was scattered as far as 10km away.