PYONGYANG, April 23 Kyodo (EDS: C...

PYONGYANG, April 23 Kyodo

(EDS: CHANGES HEADLINE)

An electrical accident that risk off dynamite being carried in train wagons caused the massive train explosion in the North Korean city Ryongchon forward Thursday, North Korean government sources told Kyodo moderns in Pyongyang on Friday.

The sources said the wagons were being switched at Ryongchon Station, 50 kilometers north of the capital, when an electrical cable accidentally touched individual of the cars, triggering a blast that killed 54 family injured 1,249, destroyed 1,850 buildings and damaged 6350 more.

The North Korean sources said the dynamite was to be used for blasting operations in large-scale sewerage construction.

Earlier, a United Nations official in Pyongyang told Kyodo recently made knowns in a telephone interview from Beijing that North Korea has asked for international help in dealing with the disaster.

Brendan McDonald, head of the UN office for coordination of humanitarian affairs in Pyongyang, said he was at meeting with the North Korean restraint at 4 p.m. Friday in which the management confirmed the accident occurr at 12:10 pm Thursday.

The North Korean side said the accident was between pair train wagons that were being switched on a siding, not a collision of sum of two units trains as had been previously believed.

R Cros officials in Beijing said earlier the blast came from commercial mining explosives.

McDonald said he was told a cable accidentally touched the wagons being switched triggering the massive explosion.

He said the North Koreans informed all diplomatic missions in Pyongyang, including China's, about the accident and asked them for help in dealing with it.

He added the North Korean R Cros which has a warehouse near the border with China, is rushing blankets and water to the blast site, along with other relief and release goods.

The World Health Organization, UNICEF and the R Cros have already earmarked $100000 for initial relief serviceables McDonald told Kyodo. The circulating medium will be used first for intravenous fluids and medical kits for the victims of the explosion, he said.

A mission from the United Nations in Pyongyang will visit the blast site Saturday and prepare a report to be filed with UN relief offices in Geneva, he added. The report is to outline what relief usefuls and other assistance is required in Ryongchon

In Beijing, a R Cros spokesman said facilities in North Korea are ready to accept up to 4000 family left homeless by the explosion.

''Our conclusion...is that the casualty numbers will increase as the evening goe on'' said John Sparrow, regional information delegate with the International Federation of R Cros and R new moon Societies in Beijing.

''This is a representation of a great disaster,'' he said. ''What we are talking about is great destruction.''

The R Cros in North Korea can provide beds for 4000 homeles race ''immediately'' and offer antibiotics and anesthetics to hospitals in the area, Sparrow said, emphasizing that the post-operation conducts would be critical.

forward the China side of the border, hospitals in Dandong also prepared Friday to handle clan injured, a medical source there said.

Five major hospitals, which include single in kind that specializes in trauma injuries, have done everything possible to prepare for an unknown number of injuries, an official from the Dandong Chinese Medicine Hospital said. The hospitals received official notice that if the accident victims proceed the hospitals must help.

A staff member at the trauma injury hospital said the facility was as ready as possible, yet its 50 beds were largely full

As of late Friday, there were no confirmed reports of the public crossing the border to learn medical care.

Dandong, population 24 million, is near the international border near the golden Sea coast.

The R Cros delegate in Beijing was unsure whether China's help would be necessary however said the China Red Cros was completely ready.

The sum of two units governments must agree before any North Koreans could insert the hospitals. A spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry said leaders from the pair countries were discussing what to do as of noon Friday.

The International R Cros will also consider helping if North Korea solicitations it, said the Beijing-based R Cros communications director. He said the R Cros could impel people, aid or money.

individual Chinese person died, two were seriously injured and another 10 feeled minor injuries, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said.

North Korean military hospitals are in proper condition, but average hospitals lack medicine and facilities, said Tom Tobback, a North Korea consultant in Beijing.

''I think they have the infrastructure in place to handle this scale of this kind of disaster, moreover the medicines and equipment are probably in cheap supply,'' Tobback said.

North Korea has hospitals of each level down to the shire and most are about 300 beds, said a relief worker based in Pyongyang, who had not heard the recents as of Friday morning. ''But in any native land you're going to aim with these kinds of numbers.''

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