North Korea blamed carelessness for Thursday’s blast in Ryongchon. ‘‘The blasts occurred when an electrical pole was knocked down after an oil tanker collided with two carriages loaded with ammonium nitrate fertiliser during shunting, causing a short circuit,’’ a Korean official said. ‘‘The rail tracks were damaged in the blast, which produced two huge pits 8-10m deep. Broken rails lay here and there, and smashed pieces of carriages were scattered on the ground.’’‘‘It looks as though a fireball has swept through,’’ John Sparrow, a Red Cross spokesman, said on Saturday. He said more than 1,300 people were injured. ‘‘A school was destroyed,’’ he said, adding that 129 public buildings were destroyed. — (Reuters)
