The South Korean Red Cross said Friday that it is willing to provide humanitarian aid to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) if Pyongyang asks forsuch help in the wake of a train collision which presumed to have left thousands killed or injured.

The South Korean Yonhap News Agency quoted a Red Cross Association official as saying that the DPRK side has yet to inform the visiting delegation of any accident.

But the official said, "If the DPRK's Red Cross asks for medical and humanitarian aid, we will provide the DPRK with it."

The South Korean delegation, led by National Red Cross President Lee Yoon-gu, is currently in Pyongyang to discuss with its DPRK counterparts ways of boosting inter-Korean cooperation, like separated family reunions.

South Korean media reported two fuel-laden trains collided and exploded on Thursday afternoon near a DPRK station in Ryongchon, atown about 20 kilometers from the border with China. About 3,000 were feared killed or injured.

It was reported that the blast was so powerful that it destroyed the railway station and nearby buildings, forcing the DPRK authorities to declare a state of emergency.

South Korean government officials and the intelligence agency were working to gather more detailed information on the accident, Yonhap said.

"We are working to find the cause of the explosion and how manypeople were killed or injured," a South Korean government officialsaid on condition of anonymity. "Given the scale of the explosion,we guess that the casualty figures may be larger than originally thought."

Earlier Friday, South Korea's Acting President Goh Kun expressed regret over the train collision, and ordered government officials to seek ways of providing humanitarian aid to the DPRK if needed.

Source: Xinhua