Explosion of city bus after charging at hydrogen charging station...3 Injured

[Anchor]
Three people were injured when a city bus exploded after charging at a hydrogen charging station in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province.It has been determined that the

accident bus was charged to travel for repair beyond the vehicle.

This is reporter Lee Sung-woo.

[Reporter]
Two city buses are stopping next to the hydrogen charging station charger.

A bus suddenly explodes as a person walks behind the bus.

Black smoke and debris from the vehicle fly in all directions to see how big the explosion was.

At around 11:10 a.m., a city bus that finished charging at a hydrogen charging station in Mokhaeng-dong, Chungju-si, Chungcheongbuk-do, exploded.In the accident of

, three people, including a charging station employee in his 30s, were taken to the hospital with serious or minor injuries.

Fortunately, all three are known to be non-life-threatening.

The explosion occurred after the accident bus had finished charging hydrogen, the fuel, to travel for repairs beyond the vehicle.The

incident bus was not abnormal while driving, but a fault code appeared in the instrument cluster and was scheduled to travel to the service center in Eumseong-gun.

[Yoon Yoo-seop / Bus company official: Before moving to Gamgok, where Hyundai Motor's large service center is located, a failure code starting with an F was found on Saturday....]

When the accident occurred, the Korea Gas Safety Corporation checked the storage room and compressor in the charging station for the risk of a secondary accident.

[Hong Seung-woon / Korea Gas Safety Corporation Disaster Safety Department: We checked the normal condition until charging. We have confirmed that there are no gas leaks in the storage room and compressor at the moment, and we have completed the action to prevent secondary confirmation.]

However, additional risks exist as the cause of the accident has not been identified.

Chungju City has suspended all 18 hydrogen buses operating in the region and has begun inspections.

[Kang Yongsik / Director of Transportation Policy Department, Chungju, North Chungcheong Province: There are a total of 18 hydrogen electric buses in Chungju. For the sake of citizens' safety, we urgently suspended the operation. We've put in six spare cars and nine chartered buses....]

Police and others have launched an investigation into the exact cause of the accident based on the exploded bus and recovered parts.

I'm YTN's Lee Sungwoo.