Video: 'Korean War - PART 5, Beginning of the Attack (June 1950) 6.25' (Hangang Bridge bombing at 6:46/7:30; North Korea's capture of Seoul at 9:24)

(Wednesday, June 28, 1950, 2:30 a.m. KDT; during the Korean War, part of the Cold War) — 800 refugees who were fleeing across the Hangang Bridge, which crossed in Seoul, South, Korea, were killed this morning when the South Korean Army bombed the bridge to delay the rapid North Korean advance towards the city.

As the North Korean Army approached the Han River, engineers of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Army of South Korea had rigged explosives. In the meantime, some 4,000 South Korean civilians and soldiers were fleeing across to avoid being trapped behind enemy lines.

Video: 'Korean War - PART 6, The First Weeks (June, July 1950) 6.25' (North Korea's capture of Seoul at 0:00)

Detonation of the bombs at the main bridge, at Hangang, had been set for 1:30 a.m. General Kim Pak Il, the ROK Deputy Chief of Staff, delayed the blast for 45 minutes, but at 2:15 a.m., the blast order was given, destroying two spans of the Hangang Bridge and dropping thousands of persons in a 75-foot plunge to the river, killing between 500 and 1,000 refugees (the South Korean government said 800 people died in the blast); a railroad bridge across the river remained standing, however.

At 11:00 a.m. KDT, the North Korean Army reached the bridge, and shortly after crossing the river, captured Seoul at noon, just three days and eight hours after the Korean War began.