Residents of Ryongchon, North Korea, where a train explosion wreaked carnage on Thursday, were living in tents and coping as best they could on Friday as panicky relatives rushed over the border from China to help.
“As soon as the explosion happened a lot of homes collapsed. A lot of the people are using canvas or plastic to shield themselves from the weather,” said Li Kaisheng, who has spoken with family in the devastated town.
“Many people are living outside in tents. A lot of windows have been shattered and roofs blown off.”
The Red Cross, which has visited the scene of the accident 20km from the Dandong border, said at least 54 people died and 1 249 were wounded when two trains collided.
The North Korean Foreign Ministry said on Friday that an “ignition of gunpowder” caused an explosion in Thursday in Ryongchon, but made no mention of casualties, Itar-Tass news agency reported from Pyongyang.
The United Nations — citing the North Korean Foreign Ministry — on Friday said two wagonloads of dynamite being shunted into a siding hit live electrical wires, sparking the massive explosion.
“There was no collision,” Masood Hyder, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in North Korea, said from Pyongyang.
“It was an explosion caused by two wagons full of explosives, which I believe was dynamite, being shunted and coming into contact with live wires.”
Hyder was briefed on Friday by the North Korean Foreign Ministry and is heading to the explosion site on Saturday.
The Red Cross, which has visited the scene of the accident 20km from the Dandong border, said at least 54 people died and 1 249 were wounded when two trains collided.
Many residents of Dandong, separated from North Korea by a railroad bridge over the Yalu River, said they had spoken to relatives and had gone to North Korea to find out if they were still alive.
They burst into tears when they heard news of the disaster.
“They received phone calls from relatives on the day of the accident,” said a shopkeeper in a Korean neighbourhood close to the border post.
“They started crying. A lot of them have gone over to the other side to see their relatives.”
Li, whose nephew went to Ryongchon on Thursday, said the explosion happened in a residential area and he had been told the hospitals were struggling to cope with the flood of wounded.
“They are not well equiped,” he said. “Only the lightly injured were taken to hospital in Ryongchon. The people seriosuly hurt were taken about 15km to Sinuiju city.”
Sinuiju is close to the Dandong border.
“I heard that all the hospitals there are full of patients,” he said.
This would explain why hospitals in Dandong had received no patients despite authorities telling them to be ready to accept the injured.
“We got a call from the Dandong health department last night telling us an accident had happened and to be prepared to assist them,” said Zhang Fengjing, director of the hospital affairs department at the Number One hospital.
“But we haven’t received any of the patients. None of the hospitals in Dandong have received any patients.”
Nurses in the hospital said they had stayed up throughout the night waiting for the wounded to arrive.
“Several nurses and doctors were on duty. We stayed up all night waiting for them but they never came,” said Sun Chengying, the nursing supervisor.
Sporadic vehicle traffic was seen coming from North Korea on Friday, and one elderly woman who crossed into Dandong said she heard there had been some kind of accident, but was not aware of the details.
Zhang added that, as far as he knew, no doctors from Dandong had gone to the crash site, and suggested North Korea would be able to cope.
“In any city, they will likely be able to respond,” he said.
While some reports suggested ash and debris were carried over the Chinese border by the intensify of the blast, there was no evidence of this in Dandong.
Despite a news blackout across the river in North Korea, most people in Dandong had heard about the accident.
“I heard it on the radio. They said there were more than 3 000 dead or injured,” said a taxi driver, surnamed Wang. — Sapa-AFP
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