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Aiming at figuring out the effect of individual initiative and internal environment of a station on evacuation processes under the circumstance of emergency, social force analysis of pedestrian evacuation processes in a metro station considering the effect of dangerous source was achieved and a modified social force model was proposed. In this model, by presenting a new calculation method and update rules for desired speed and desired direction in the self-driven force, pedestrian's subjective initiative was taken into account. Besides, the repulsive force between a dangerous source and a pedestrian was introduced to reflect the influence of surroundings on the pedestrian. Detailed simulations on the pedestrian evacuation processes were designed and conducted in the context of the platform of a Shanghai metro station. The results show that the model can successfully describe the characteristics of pedestrian evacuation processes in the emergency which results from a dangerous source. Specifically, in order to reduce evacuation time, station staff should take measures to lead pedestrians to make reasonable detours and prevent the dangerous source from further spreading. It is also advised that efforts should be made to increase pedestrians' desired speed when the station is in low density and to improve the efficiency of bottlenecks when the density is high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]