4 injured after false crime alert on Seoul subway

Two police officials patrol the Line No. 2 subway from Dangsan Station heading to City Hall Station on Aug. 20. (Yonhap)

Four passengers were injured as they rushed to get off the subway upon being told to evacuate from a train in Seoul due to a crime taking place inside, Wednesday morning.

Seoul Jungbu Police Station received a report about a “suspicious person” aboard the Line No. 2 subway heading to Euljiro 4-ga Station from Dongdaemun History and Culture Park Station at 8:23 a.m. Seoul Metro also stopped subway operations at Euljiro 4-ga Station and made the evacuation announcement for passengers.

A passenger reportedly screamed during the evacuation, sending many passengers rushing toward the subway doors at once. Four passengers suffered minor injuries during the evacuation process, with one of the four sent to a hospital due to a large cut on their face.

The subway came to a stop at Euljiro 4-ga Station for about six minutes before resuming service, according to Seoul Metro.

Police officials stated they had received several reports about passengers running while screaming in the subway station, but had found no evidence of a crime at the site. Officials believe that chaos was instigated as passengers believed a crime had occurred due to the unidentified passenger’s screams.

Seoul Metro also confirmed to The Korea Herald that no items likely to have led to a misunderstanding were found when the train car was inspected.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday at 6:20 p.m., passengers also evacuated from Line No. 9’s Dangsan Station due to a false alarm. A man in his 20s was arrested on suspicion of harassing another passenger waiting for a train, but as the victim and surrounding passengers shouted to others to help detain the perpetrator, several passengers evacuated the area, thinking that a potential crime with a lethal weapon was taking place.

By Lee Jung-joo(lee.jungjoo@heraldcorp.com)