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| Tuesday, 27 April 2004 |
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Train blast victims' relatives fear the worst DANDONG, China, Monday (AFP) No telephones, no faxes, no emails. Family and friends of residents living near the site of North Korea's train blast said they have had no news of their loved ones and many feared the worst. Four days after Thursday's explosion at Ryongchon station, relatives living just 20 kilometers (12 miles) away in the Chinese border town of Dandong said they have no way of finding out about their friends and family. The city of Dandong has close links with North Korea, with many Korean and Chinese families split between the two cities, but as North Korean society is heavily controlled, it is impossible to call most residents in the North or for them to call out. The Pyongyang government told Red Cross officials Sunday the death toll had risen to 161. Many of the 1,300 injured remain in hospitals with serious wounds. Some relatives in Dandong left for Ryongchon Thursday and Friday, but many have had to wait in China as most vehicles are barred from crossing the border at the weekend. Thursday's explosion, which North Korea said was caused by a collision of rail wagons carrying ammonium nitrate fertilizer and fuel oil, destroyed virtually everything within 500 metres (yards) of the Ryongchon railway station, including a school nearby. Normally in disasters, a survivor-registration service is set up to help people find out if their loved ones are among the dead or injured, said Letty Vanderstap, a Beijing-based representative for the International Federation of Red Cross. But North Korea has not set up any such service, she said over ther weekend. The North is believed to be struggling to cope with the accident, with hundreds of people still in hospitals, nearly 2,000 homes destroyed or damaged and some 30,000 people "affected." World Food Programme officials who visited hospitals Sunday said doctors lacked basic supplies, such as antibiotics, pain killers, and clean gauze. A South Korean man who runs a factory in Ryongchon said none of his employees lost loved ones, but they described a scene of massive destruction. "They didn't see any bodies, but the houses were all gone. There was a huge crater in the ground where many houses had collapsed and the bodies were buried inside," said the investor surnamed Jung. |
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