BEIJING (AP) -- A Red Cross worker who visited the site of a
train explosion in North Korea on Saturday described a scene of
devastation with flattened and burned buildings and a "crater
as though a fireball had hit."

Buildings left standing within a few hundred yards of the site
had blown out windows, damaged roofs and "showed signs of
scorching," Jay Matta said in a conference call.

He said he didn't see any dead or injured at the site and
assumed that North Korean rescue workers had taken victims to
hospitals. "It looks like they did a thorough search" before
international aid workers arrived, he said.

Matta also said there didn't appear to be a need for immediate
shelter. "Local residents have taken in those who are homeless
or destitute," he said.

John Sparrow, a Red Cross spokesman in Beijing, said Matta told
him earlier that damage from Thursday's explosion in the
railway town of Ryongchon near the Chinese border was spread
within a radius of 2 1/2 miles.


"The railroad station and the immediate surroundings were
obliterated," said Sparrow.

Matta, who is based in Pyongyang, described "a crater as though
a fireball" had hit.

Normally secretive North Korean officials told foreign
diplomats and relief organizations that hundreds of people were
killed and thousands injured in the blast.

In the first report datelined from the site, China's official
Xinhua News Agency said at least 154 people were confirmed
dead, half of them students, and 1,300 were injured.

Some 129 public buildings were destroyed, Sparrow said, and 120
were damaged, including a school, a food-processing facility
and a hospital.

Because the hospital is damaged, some of the injured people had
to be taken to another hospital, he said without providing more
details.

Rose Dew, of the for Irish aid agency Concern, visited the site
and said the blast occurred very close to a school and a
dormitory. She spoke by phone to The Associated Press in London.

Lee Yoon-gu, president of South Korea's Red Cross, who returned
home Saturday after a five-day visit to Pyongyang, said about
2,000 houses at Ryongchon are believed to have been damaged.

Lee said he had not seen any North Korean report about the
explosion, and first became aware of the accident through
international media reports.

North Korea's Red Cross chief Jang Jae On officially told him
about the explosion Friday night. Jang asked for assistance.

South Korea's Red Cross is prepared to send blankets, clothes,
towels and other household goods as early as Sunday, he said.

Lee also proposed sending doctors to help, but had not received
any response from the North.