Man dies after being trapped between subway doors

Security guards watch over the site where a man, 36, died after being caught in the gap between a train and a platform safety screen door at Gimpo International Airport Station on Wednesday morning. / Yonhap

By Ko Dong-hwan

A man was killed after being caught between subway safety doors and a train at Gimpo International Airport Station in western Seoul, Wednesday.

The passenger, surnamed Kim, 36, was on a train heading for Banghwa Station of line No. 5. As the train arrived at Gimpo station, he was getting off but got caught in the 30-centimeter gap between the train and the platform safety screen door.

As the subway engineer closed the train doors and screen doors to depart, a passenger reported through the intercom on the train that a man was caught between the two sets of doors, according to Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corp.

The engineer re-opened the doors and closed them again 27 seconds later and started moving the train, apparently failing to check whether the man got out of the gap.

The victim, circled, collapses after coming through an emergency door on the platform. He died in hospital. / Yonhap

A security camera showed that Kim was flung through an emergency exit door next to the safety screen door when the train began moving again.

Kim was taken to Myongji Hospital in the nearby city of Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, but was pronounced dead on arrival.

It was the year’s third death related to screen doors at train stations. In February, an elderly woman was killed after being trapped between the screen door and the train at Seoul Station. In May, a mechanic was hit and killed by an arriving train at Guui Station in eastern Seoul while fixing a malfunctioning platform screen door.