▲ Euljiro 4-ga subway station in Seoul (Yonhap)

subway passengers-evacuation

4 injured as passengers try to evacuate subway train in mistaken fear of random attack

SEOUL, Sept. 6 (Yonhap) -- Passengers in a subway train in Seoul dashed toward the exit doors en masse Wednesday after mistaking a screaming passenger for the occurrence of a crime, leaving four people injured in the rush, police said.

The episode occurred at 8:22 a.m. when a passenger screamed inside a Line 2 subway train heading toward Euljiro 4-ga Station. Others passengers took it as a sign that a crime was happening and ran out of the train when it stopped at the station, according to the Seoul Metro and the police.

Police officers were sent to the scene following multiple emergency calls saying, "Passengers are screaming and running away," but found no signs of a crime, the police officials said. Why the first passenger screamed remains unknown.

The episode left four people injured as a crowd of people rushed toward the train doors to evacuate. One of them was transported to a hospital with a minor injury.

The train was put back in service after a six-minute halt at the station.

"I thought a stabbing rampage had occurred," a passenger wrote on social media.

It marks the latest in a series of similar subway evacuation episodes as the country is reeling from two back-to-back stabbing rampages in and around Seoul that left three random people dead and many others wounded.

On Tuesday, passengers evacuated the Dangsan subway station in the evening rush hour after they mistook a sexual harasser "in the process of" being apprehended by authorities for the occurrence of a knife rampage.

The sexual harassment victim and people who were around her shouted to others to catch the harasser, and other passengers misinterpreted that as the occurrence of a knife attack, the police said.

On Aug. 24, passengers ran out of a Line 9 subway train following a commotion caused by a foreigner who passed out on the train, while two days later, the police were alerted by a passenger who erroneously reported that another passenger had a weapon on a Line 1 subway train.

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