A leaking underground gas line exploded during morning rush hour Friday, killing at least 103 people, including dozens of children on their way to school.
Rescue workers said at least at least 160 people were injured, many seriously, and other people were still trapped under debris from a subway under construction.The explosion occurred under a well-traveled road in an area that had been excavated for the subway and covered with 600-pound metal plates, which went flying into the air like dominoes, flattening cars and buses.
Officials said 56 of the dead were students in their early teens from the seven middle schools in the vicinity.
"It was like a nuclear bomb exploding," said Kim Dong-duk, a high school student. He arrived early for school, only to watch from across a street as the blast flung vehicles filled with classmates into the air.
At the nearby Song Nam Middle School, 36 students were dead and a dozen more were missing. Students sobbed as teachers slowly read rolls and the blackboard filled up with the names of absent classmates, said Song In-woo, a ninth-grader.
Parents rushed to the school, and their cries of grief filled the schoolyard, he added.
Police said a spark from the subway construction site ignited gas escaping from a broken pipe, causing the blast. As many as 100 cars and buses were engulfed in flames. Some tumbled more than 30 feet into the exposed pit.
"I heard a loud boom and then was thrown into the air," said subway construction worker Suh Man-kyo, speaking from his hospital bed. "When I regained consciousness, my co-workers were crying out for help. Many were pinned under beams," which were thrown as high as a 15-story building.
Taegu, a provincial capital of 2.2 million people about 140 miles south of Seoul, is the country's third-largest city. The subway - Taegu's first - was near completion after more than three years of work.
The national news agency Yonhap, reporting that construction workers were using excavators near the gas line, suggested workers may have accidently damaged the line.