Video shows Seoul subway arson had all the makings of catastrophe, yet no one seriously hurt. How?

Despite the intense blaze, no one died or suffered serious injuries, including burns, except the perpetrator himself, who sustained minor burns to his arms. He is now under investigation for attempted mass murder.

Moon Joon-hyun

Moon Joon-hyun

The Korea Herald

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Passengers walk along the tracks to evacuate through a tunnel after a fire broke out on Seoul Subway Line No. 5 between Yeouinaru and Mapo stations on May 31, using phone flashlights to guide one another in the dark. PHOTO: YEONGDEUNGPO FIRE STATION/ THE KOREA HERALD

June 27, 2025

SEOUL – On the morning of May 31, a subway train on Seoul Subway Line No. 5 was moments away from becoming a disaster zone.

At 8:42 a.m., just after entering the tunnel beneath the Han River between Yeouinaru and Mapo stations, a 67-year-old man pulled a plastic bottle from his backpack and poured gasoline down the aisle of the fourth car.

Sensing danger, passengers screamed and scrambled for the doors. A pregnant woman slipped on the gasoline and lost a shoe as she crawled to safety.

Within seconds, the man ignited the fuel. In just 20 seconds, the entire car was engulfed in flames, barely moments after the woman had escaped. Near the opposite end of the train car, another man slipped on the gasoline but managed to escape, once again, just seconds before fire erupted.

The scene was captured on surveillance footage released Wednesday by the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office, offering a chilling glimpse into how narrowly catastrophe was avoided.

Despite the intense blaze, no one died or suffered serious injuries, including burns, except the perpetrator himself, who sustained minor burns to his arms. He is now under investigation for attempted mass murder.

Prosecutors have charged the suspect, identified by his surname Won, with attempted murder, arson of an occupied vehicle and railway safety violations. There were 481 passengers onboard the train, with 160 individually identified in the investigation.

Officials say the outcome could have been far worse.

But what prevented a catastrophe was not luck. It was preparation, built on painful lessons from South Korea’s worst subway disaster.

The attack drew immediate comparisons to the 2003 Daegu subway fire, when an arsonist also set fire to a train using gasoline. That blaze claimed 192 lives and injured 151. In both cases, the attacker targeted a train in a tunnel, using accelerants to spread flames rapidly.

The difference this time? Fire-resistant materials, emergency equipment and trained responses that were not in use back then.

After 2003, Seoul Metro replaced flammable materials in subway cars with non-combustible stainless steel and flame-resistant fabrics. New firewalls and evacuation signage were added in the tunnels. Emergency intercoms and manual door release handles were installed in every car.

These changes worked. According to Kim Jin-chul of the Mapo Fire Department, most flames burned only trash and personal items, not the train itself.

“When firefighters arrived, passengers and staff had already extinguished the blaze using onboard fire extinguishers,” he said at a press briefing on May 31.

Passengers did not just flee. Some helped elderly riders escape. Others activated emergency brakes and opened doors manually to release smoke. A few even stayed behind to fight the fire with extinguishers.

Among the riders were four off-duty police officers. Initially believing the suspect to be an injured victim, they carried him out on a stretcher. But they noticed heavy soot on his hands and questioned him further. That led to his arrest at Yeouinaru Station.

Despite the successful evacuation, a crucial weakness was exposed. The onboard security camera footage was not transmitted in real time to subway control centers, according to lawmaker Yang Bu-nam’s office. This meant that authorities outside the train were unaware of the situation as it unfolded.

Prosecutors say that if the evacuation had been delayed by even a few seconds, fatalities would have been likely. The incident has prompted renewed calls to improve real-time monitoring and reinforce crisis response systems across Korea’s subway network.

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