An apparent engine problem with a KTX train forced hundreds of passengers to change trains in the middle of their journeys on Saturday, officials said, the latest in a recent series of incidents involving the high-speed trains.

A KTX-Sancheon train encountered an engine problem after departing from the southeastern city of Daegu on Saturday morning.

The Seoul-bound train arrived in Daejeon, about halfway to its destination, 26 minutes behind the schedule, officials said.

Hundreds of passengers transferred to another KTX train at the Daejeon station and arrived in Seoul 39 minutes later than scheduled, officials said.

"The KTX-Sancheon train can run at a speed of up to 300 kilometers per hour, but its speed fell to below 150 kilometers per hour," an official of Korea Railroad Corp. (KORAIL) said. "We're looking into the incident to determine the exact cause."

It was the latest in a series of incidents involving KTX trains.

On Friday, a KTX train came to an abrupt stop due to a heat sensor malfunction on its way to Seoul from the southeastern port city of Busan. And on Feb. 11, a KTX-Sancheon train derailed near Gwangmyeong, south of Seoul, due to a combination of human mistakes, including the loss of a nut in a device that controls track movement for trains.

(Yonhap News)