Dozens of Students Among 103 Killed in South Korea Explosion

TAEGU, South Korea More than 100 people - including dozens ofchildren arriving for school - were killed when a powerfulunderground explosion engulfed them in flames or tossed their carsand buses into the air.

The children's bloodied navy blue uniforms, schoolbags andtextbooks lay scattered among the wreckage.

Of the 103 people killed, officials said 60 of them werestudents in their early teens heading to seven area middle schoolsduring the morning rush hour. As many as 200 people were injured andothers were trapped in the debris.

"There are torn limbs, blood everywhere," said rescue workerChoi Hong. "A lot of the people down there are kids, kids who werecrushed to death."

He was among some 3,900 soldiers, police, firefighters andvolunteers working to rescue survivors.

Police said a spark from a subway construction site set offnatural gas leaking from a broken pipeline in Taegu, a provincialcapital of 2.2 million people about 140 miles south of Seoul.

The force of the blast scattered heavy steel sheets that wereserving as a temporary four-lane road over the construction site.The sheets, each weighing more than 600 pounds, were found strewnatop buildings and houses as far as 150 feet away. High schoolstudent Kim Dong-duk said he saw metal beams fly as high as a nearby15-story apartment complex. Some landed atop buildings, cars andpassersby.

As many as 100 cars and city buses tumbled 30 feet into theexposed excavation site. Several buildings were gutted, and a dozenmore were blackened by the explosion. Witnesses reported a tower offlame up to 150 feet high.

Huge cranes were used to lift beams trapping survivors.Passersby cried and hugged each other as rescue workers carried outunconscious victims.

Schools closed early Friday, and students headed for hospitalsto look for friends and teachers.

They found tragedy. Sounds of suffering and mourning echoed inthe hallways. Relatives sat next to covered bodies, beating thefloor with their hands. Volunteers lined up to donate blood.

Police and gas company workers were practically chased out ofone hospital as mothers and relatives beat and shouted at them.

"Kill me too!" one mother shouted.

Investigators were trying to determine what caused the brokengas pipe. The subway, under construction for three years, was nearcompletion. The national news agency Yonhap, reporting that crewswere digging near the gas line, suggested workers may haveaccidentally damaged it.

South Korean President Kim Young-sam called the explosion theresult of "carelessness." Prime Minister Lee Hong-koo visited thesite and apologized to the victims and their relatives.