25 April 2004	Sunday	04 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

SEOUL/DANDONG, April 24: The Red Cross described apocalyptic scenes around the site of a train explosion in North Korea but said on Saturday the death toll stood at 154 - far lower than first feared.

North Korea on Saturday broke its official silence on the catastrophe, saying it had been sparked by an "electrical contact caused by carelessness".

China's Xinhua news agency quoted North Korean official Jang Song-gun, in charge of rescue efforts, as saying 154 people had been confirmed killed, including 76 primary schoolchildren.

South Korean media, quoting witnesses and Chinese sources, had initially reported up to 3,000 people killed or injured.

"It looks as though a fireball has swept through," John Sparrow, a spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said.

There was total destruction for several hundred metres around Ryongchon's railway station, he added.

The explosion gouged a massive crater 50 metres deep where the railway depot used to be and destroyed a school and hundreds of homes, foreign aid workers said on their return from a visit, led by government officials, to the blast site.

Describing the crater, Rose Dew, country director for Dublin-based relief agency, Concern, said: "It's about 50 metres deep, but was probably deeper... Bulldozers were filling it up."

Ms Dew said rescue operations appeared to be over as she did not see any people searching for bodies.

The blast came just hours after a train carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong-il home from Beijing passed through Ryongchon. Mr Kim had been talking to Chinese leaders about the protracted nuclear arms crisis, which has focused world attention on Pyongyang.

SHORT CIRCUIT: "The blasts occurred... due to a short circuit when an electrical pole nearby was knocked down after an oil tanker collided with two carriages loaded with ammonium nitrate fertilizer during the shunting of wagons," Mr Jang said.

A brief North Korean state news agency report gave no death toll but described the damage as "very serious".

A school was destroyed and some 129 public buildings, including hospitals, damaged or ruined. Some 30,000 people had been "affected", Mr Sparrow said.

Sweden's ambassador to North Korea, Paul Beijer, said the authorities would have to rebuild about half the houses in the town.

"We were free to walk about in the area, we got to take pictures and I myself stood and talked with many families who scoured the remains of their homes. They described a fireball and a huge bang," Mr Beijer told Swedish national radio after visiting the scene.

International relief teams descended on the area and offers of aid flowed in response to an unprecedented appeal from the fiercely independent and secretive North Korean state.

"Water and power have been severely damaged," World Food Programme (WFP) spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume said after a briefing by a group of aid agencies. "There will be significant requirements in the coming weeks and months for the rehabilitation and reconstruction."

At the Chinese border town of Dandong, relatives of tourists on a group trip to North Korea waited anxiously for their return.

An intelligence source in South Korea said there was no hint of sabotage or of an attempt on Mr Kim's life.

PYONGYANG BREAKS SILENCE: A brief state news agency report gave no details of casualties from Thursday's accident, saying only that damage was "very serious".

North Korean officials were earlier quoted as telling diplomats that several hundred people had been killed and several thousand injured.

"An explosion occurred at Ryongchon railway station in North Phyongan province on April 22 due to the electrical contact caused by carelessness during the shunting of wagons loaded with ammonium nitrate fertilizer and tank wagons," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

It said Pyongyang "appreciates the willingness expressed by the governments of various countries and international bodies and organizations to render humanitarian assistance..."-Reuters