Over 153 people were crushed to death during Halloween celebrations when crowds surged through a narrow alleyway in a packed nightlife area of Seoul, plunging the nation into mourning.
An estimated 100,000 people had gathered in Itaewon, an area known for its bustling nightlife, to celebrate Halloween on Saturday , the first in three years since the end of social distancing, mask mandates and other anti-Covid rules.
Its reported that it was a chaotic scene due to the sheer volume of people on the streets well before the deadly crush occurred at about 10.20pm, when a large crowd, many wearing Halloween costumes, surged into a steep, narrow alleyway off the main thoroughfare near the Hamilton Hotel.
On Sunday, families and friends were desperately seeking word of loved ones at community centres turned into facilities for missing people, while shocked parents collected the bodies of the overwhelmingly young victims from the city’s morgues.
“I still can’t believe what has happened. It was like a hell,” said Kim Mi Sung, who works for a nonprofit organisation that promotes tourism in Itaewon. She had performed CPR on 10 people who were unconscious, nine of whom were later declared dead, she said.
Choi Sung-beom, the head of the Yongsan fire station, told reporters at the scene that 82 people had been injured, 19 of them seriously. The deaths included 22 foreigners, he said. Emergency workers warned the death toll could rise further.
President Yoon declared a state of official national mourning during a live address to the nation. “As president, who is responsible for the people’s lives and safety, my heart is heavy and I struggle to cope with my grief,” he said.
The president pledged that authorities would “thoroughly investigate the cause of the incident and make fundamental improvements to ensure the same accident does not occur again in the future”.
Most victims were in their teens and 20s, with 97 identified as female and 54 as male. At least 20 foreigners were among the dead, the foreign ministry said, including citizens of the US, Uzbekistan, Austria, Norway, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Iran and Sri Lanka. One French national, three Russians and four Chinese people also died, their governments said.
Flags at government agencies and other public buildings were lowered to half-mast across South Korea on Sunday. Numerous Halloween parades, concerts and other events were cancelled and shops around the country took down Halloween displays and decorations.
More than 400 emergency workers and 140 vehicles from around the nation, including all available personnel in Seoul, were deployed to the streets of Itaewon on Saturday night to treat the injured
