200 hurt in Seoul subway mishap
Automated system preventing a train getting too close to another might have failed
Seoul: Two subway trains collided in Seoul on Friday, lightly injuring 200 people and further undermining public confidence just weeks after South Korea’s ferry disaster claimed the lives of hundreds of schoolchildren.
Briefing reporters, fire department official Kim Kyung-Soo said of the 200 injured on Friday, only an elderly woman with a fracture was seriously hurt.
More than 150 received some sort of treatment but mostly for minor cuts or sprains, he said.
News of the accident broke with the country still reeling from the April 16 ferry tragedy that left 300 dead or missing. The subway accident happened around 3:30 pm when a moving train slammed into the rear of a stationary train at Sangwangs-imni station in eastern Seoul.
Around 1,000 people were evacuated from the two trains, Mr Kim said. According to senior Seoul Metro official Chung Soo-Young, initial investigations suggested the automated stopping system that should prevent a train getting too close to another appeared to have failed.