Dozens Dead, Hundreds Injured, Missing in South Korea Subway Fire
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: More international news this morning, and this tragically coming in. Search crews are combing through the charred debris of subway cars in South Korea looking for survivors and retrieving bodies after a horrible subway fire. Dozens are dead this morning and hundreds more are injured or missing. CNN's Sohn Jie-Ae is in the southern city of Daegu, where the fire started. Jie-Ae -- good morning.</s>SOHN JIE-AE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon. We're here in Daegu, a very late evening. We are standing in front -- in the Daegu station. There's lots of shock and disbelief on the faces of the citizens of Daegu at the tragedy that happened this morning. We are actually standing just steps away from one of the subway entrances, exits, where we saw rescue workers go in and out all day today. A short while ago, we saw some rescue workers come out with what they said were possibly remains of some of the victims of the subway tragedy. The latest numbers we are given here today are 50 dead, 134 injured, 162 missing. Now, we also saw here in Daegu and around the subway station many family members or friends who had members or family members who left in the morning, said they were going to take a subway train ride, and never appeared again. So, a lot of these people looking for some answers, looking for any types of clues to people -- of their relatives. And a lot of media here as well, trying to cover news that is on the minds of almost all South Koreans at the present time. And a lot of people are concerned about the fact that the number of casualties are expected to increase significantly in the coming hours. Authorities here are saying that they're going to have to go into the subway cars, try to identify some of the bodies. But reports say that there are dozens more in the subway cars, and this could mean that the casualty numbers will keep on increasing -- Leon.</s>HARRIS: Well, Jie-Ae, what do we know now, at this late hour, about the man who is being held now in the hospital, and he's now being held as a suspect in this fire? What do we know about him? Does he have links to any terrorist groups or whatever, or was he just a person who had some sort of -- I don't know -- some sort of a weird objective of his own here or what?</s>SOHN: Well, that is sort of a questionable and sketchy aspect at the moment. Authorities say they have someone, an arson suspect. They are questioning him. They say he's a man in his 50s, maybe a former truck driver. What we do have is some witness reports about the actions of the man himself. They actually have witnesses who say they saw him enter the subway car, light a bottle that was full of gasoline. There are witnesses who say they scuffled with the man to try to stop him. And he was in a hospital being treated for burns. So, we won't know until the authorities finish questioning him, whether they will or will not charge him with some sort of arson charges -- Leon.</s>HARRIS: Thank you very much, Jie-Ae. Sohn Jie-Ae reporting to us now from Daegu, South Korea there. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com. Subway Fire>