Officials said that a stampede at a Halloween celebration in central Seoul resulted in more than 150 deaths, and the president of South Korea promised a thorough inquiry into one of the nation’s worst-ever tragedies.
As many as 100,000 individuals, largely in their teens and 20s, are thought to have attended a Halloween party in the capital’s well-known Itaewon district on Saturday night, crowding the area’s congested streets and tight alleyways.
President Yoon Suk-yeol declared a period of national mourning Sunday, telling the country in a televised address that “a tragedy and disaster occurred that should not have happened”.
He said the government “will thoroughly investigate the cause of the incident and make fundamental improvements to ensure the same accident does not occur again in the future”.
“My heart is heavy and it is difficult to contain my sorrow,” he added before he visited the scene of the disaster and spoke to emergency workers.
The mayor of Seoul, Oh Se-hoon, who hastily returned to South Korea from a business trip in Europe, announced that his office will erect a memorial altar at Seoul Plaza on Monday morning so that people may pay their respects to the victims.
“Most of the casualties are young people like our sons and daughters, which makes it even sadder,” Oh said while visiting the site of the disaster.
Eyewitnesses reported trying to escape the suffocating mob as individuals piled on top of each other while crammed into a small, sloped passageway.
The rush, which happened about 10:00 pm local time, claimed 153 lives, including 20 foreigners, according to Seoul’s interior ministry for AFP (1300 GMT).
It added that 133 persons were hurt and that the majority of the victims were young ladies in their 20s.
Three members of the armed forces, including one soldier, were among the fatalities, according to a defense ministry official in Seoul.
Authorities in Seoul reported receiving 2,642 reports of missing persons.
Officials said Sunday they had no clear idea of what caused the crash, while eyewitnesses described scenes of chaos after a vast crowd panicked in a narrow alleyway.
Local shopkeepers told AFP that the number of people at the annual celebration was “unprecedentedly large” this year — the first event to be held without Covid-19 restrictions since the pandemic began.
“There were so many people just being pushed around and I got caught in the crowd and I couldn’t get out at first too,” 30-year-old Jeon Ga-eul told AFP.
As questions began to emerge over the lack of security at the event, interior minister Lee Sang-min told a briefing that the police force had been occupied on the other side of town.
“A considerable number had been deployed at Gwanghwamun where a large crowd was expected for a protest,” he said.
He added that the police had not anticipated the Halloween event to draw such a sizable throng.
First assistance was being requested from bystanders as the quantity of patients swiftly overloaded the paramedics on the spot.
Doctor Lee Beom-suk, who provided first aid to the victims, recounted scenes of misery and mayhem in an interview with local station YTN.
“So many victims’ faces were pale. I could not catch their pulse or breath and many of them had a bloody nose. When I tried CPR, I also pumped blood out of their mouths.”
Numerous dead covered in bed sheets were visible on the pavement in AFP images, and emergency personnel wearing orange vests could be seen moving many more bodies onto stretchers and into ambulances.
