In pictures: N Korea blast

1 of 12 The explosion on Thursday gouged out a massive crater - aid workers said it looked like a fireball had hit the area.

2 of 12 North Korea said 76 of the 161 dead were children, killed when their school was destroyed.

3 of 12 The true scale of the disaster emerged when aid workers reached the devastated town.

4 of 12 Aid workers at the scene have reported that hospitals are struggling to cope without enough beds or medicine for the hundreds of victims.

5 of 12 South Korea has promised to deliver emergency aid as quickly as possible as more details of the catastrophe emerge.

6 of 12 Dazed residents picked through the rubble, which stretched for up to 500 metres from the blast site.

7 of 12 Officials said a power line had collapsed, igniting an oil tanker and wagons laden with ammonium nitrate fertiliser.

8 of 12 Aid workers estimate that at least 40% of the town was damaged by the blast.

9 of 12 Residents tried to salvage what they could from the ruins - thousands were left homeless.

10 of 12 This boy is collecting doorknobs found in the ruins.

11 of 12 The damage to the line is a major blow to North Korea, disrupting freight traffic.

12 of 12 The communist state's media kept North Koreans in the dark about the disaster for two days.