PICTURES

Train crash in Seoul leaves 200 people injured

A conductor's cabin of a damaged subway train is seen at a subway station in Seoul on May 2, 2014. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
A conductor's cabin of a damaged subway train is seen at a subway station in Seoul on May 2, 2014. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
Blood marks are seen on the floor of a damaged subway train at a subway station in Seoul on May 2, 2014. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
South Korean railway workers inspect a damaged train after a collision at Sangwangsimni station in Seoul on May 2, 2014. -- PHOTO: AFP
Passengers on the opposite side look at a damaged subway train as workers check it at a subway station in Seoul on May 2, 2014. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
Two subway trains collided on Friday, May 2, 2014, at a station in the South Korean capital of Seoul, injuring 78 passengers, the emergency services said, although none appeared to be seriously hurt. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
Two subway trains collided on Friday, May 2, 2014, at a station in the South Korean capital of Seoul, injuring 78 passengers, the emergency services said, although none appeared to be seriously hurt. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

SEOUL (REUTERS) - South Korea suffered its second serious transport accident in just over two weeks on Friday when a subway train in the capital crashed into a train at a station, injuring 200 people, although no one was killed.

The country is still mourning the victims of a ferry accident on April 16, when 300 people were killed or are missing in the submerged hull of a capsized ship in the country's worst disaster in 20 years.

Most of those hurt in the mid-afternoon accident on Friday appeared to have suffered minor abrasions, according to emergency officials at Sangwangsimni station in the east of Seoul, although one person was being treated for a brain haemorrhage and one for a fracture.

"An incoming train crashed into one that was stopped at the station," fire department official Kim Kyung Su told a news conference. About 1,000 people were evacuated, he said.

Seoul Metro official Chung Soo Young said the accident was caused by a signal failure and that two subway cars were derailed.

Mr Lee Dong Hyeon, 26, an office worker on the train that crashed into the one stopped at the station, said: "I fell forward maybe two or three metres."

"It was like tripping over when running really fast," he added.

About 4.5 million passengers use Seoul's modern metro system every day. The last major accident on a South Korean subway system was in 2003 when 192 were killed in a subway fire in the city of Daegu, which prompted major safety improvements.

Last month's ferry accident off the south-west coast led to the resignation of the prime minister and President Park Geun Hye's approval rating has dropped sharply due to the slow response of rescue services. A Gallup Korea poll issued before the train accident on Friday showed President Park's rating had plunged by 11 percentage points in the past two weeks to 48 per cent.

More than 300 schoolchildren were on the ferry and many were ordered to stay on board by crew members who later managed to get off the sinking ship.

On Friday, an announcement on the train telling passengers to remain where they were was widely ignored. Many passengers forced open the train doors and jumped down onto the track to get away, witnesses said.

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