A train ran into the back of a stationary train in Sangwangsimni station, central Seoul, an official at South Korea’s National Emergency Management Agency said by phone, asking not to be named citing official policy. There are no fatalities from the collision and no fire at the scene, he said. About 600 passengers have evacuated, he said.
Yonhap News reported about 170 people were injured and some were taken to hospital, while all passengers were evacuated. About 10 ambulances were dispatched immediately following the collision, Yonhap said. Footage broadcast on YTN showed the two trains’ windows smashed and passengers crowded onto the station platform.
Trains are halted between Euljiro 1-ga station and Seongsu station on Line 2, operator Seoul Metro said in a statement on its website. It’s the busiest subway line in the city of 10.4 million, carrying more than 2 million people a day, according to the Seoul government.
The collision comes just over two weeks after South Korea’s worst maritime disaster in four decades. The Sewol ferry sank off the southwest corner of the Korean peninsula leaving 302 people dead or missing, most of whom were high school students.
Subway stations in South Korea, which double as evacuation points in case of emergency including attack by North Korea, are stocked with gas masks after a fire in the Daegu subway in 2003 killed 192.
Bloomberg
Đăng ký: VietNam News