As the death toll mounted after in the subway arson attack, rescue workers emerging from the station said they had never been closer to hell.
A witness who saw the destruction first-hand shuddered while describing the site as "grotesque."
"Everything was black. It was still hot eight hours after the fire."
Officials said more than 120 people died in the inferno, with reports saying dozens of bodies were twisted together in the scorched shells of several subway carriages.
"We are getting field reports saying that dozens of tangled bodies are inside the trains, but we don't have a figure to put on it," said a police spokesman in an emergency situation room temporarily erected in a tent close to an entrance to the subway.
"It was close to hell down there. There were some human remains, people just burned down to the bone," said a grime-covered firefighter.
More than 130 people needed hospital treatment and dozens more are missing following what police and witnesses said appeared to be a premeditated arson attack by a deranged man who had been under lengthy care for mental illness.
Witnesses said Kim Dae-Hwan, 56, opened a plastic bottle and sprayed flammable liquid inside one of the carriages of a packed subway before igniting it with a cigarette lighter.
Passengers, sensing danger, tried to overpower the man but he fought them off and threw the bottle to the ground.
Smoke and toxic fumes billowed out from the subway entrance, choking the neighbouring streets of South Korea's fourth largest city and delaying rescue efforts.
The single-line subway system operating for only five years was shut down and police cordoned off the center of the city to allow rescue vehicles and ambulances to move in.
It took firefighters three-and-a-half hours to bring the blaze under control.
A makeshift tent for relatives and friends searching for victims was thrown up and lists identifying the named dead and injured were posted on four white boards.
Area hospitals were crammed with victims, many of whom were stretched out on guerneys in corridors awaiting attention from harried doctors and nurses.
The fire spread rapidly and destroyed two trains full of morning commuters - a six-carriage train that was the site of the arson attack and a second six-carriage train standing beside it at the station.
The subway control office shut off power to the station once the fire was reported, effectively stranding the second train.
"There was nothing left of these trains, only the steel frames and the wheels," said a witness.
All that remained on the platform was a pair of shoes, abandoned by an escaping passenger.
Hundreds of passengers desperate to escape the heat and smoke stampeded in darkness after the power was cut.
"I tried to get out," said Kim Ho-Jun, 68, a passenger being treated for smoke inhalation at Daegu's Kwak hospital. "But another passenger beat me down and I passed out.
"The next thing I know, a rescue workers pulled me to safety. It was an act of God that I lived while so many unfortunates died," he said from his hospital bed.
"I got out of there and was safely away in three or four minutes, but there was already black smoke pouring out of the entrances," said a 35-year-old woman who would be identified only as Mrs. Sok.
Firefighters said 70 bodies found inside the train carriages were reduced to ashes.
"It will take a considerable time to identify all the remains," said Daegu fire chief Kim Shin-Dong.
Forensic scientists will begin DNA testing on Wednesday, he said.
AFP