At least 151 people were killed in a crush on Saturday night when a large crowd celebrating Halloween surged into an alley in the South Korean capital Seoul’s nightlife district, according to emergency officials. According to Choi Sung-beom, head of the Yongsan Fire Station, 65 people were injured in the melee in Seoul’s Itaewon district. Officials said that nineteen of the injured were in critical condition and were receiving emergency treatment, and that the death toll could rise.
On Sunday, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol declared a national mourning period and expressed condolences to the victims.
In a statement, he stated, “This is truly tragic.” “A tragedy and disaster that should not have happened occurred last night in the heart of Seoul.”
The nation had lifted COVID restrictions and social segregation, making it the first Halloween celebration in Seoul in three years. In addition to Halloween costumes, many partygoers wore masks.
As the evening wore on, some witnesses claimed that the crowd became more rowdy and agitated. The incident happened around 10:20 p.m. (1320 GMT).
We have a lot of casualties because several people fell during a Halloween festival, Choi said. Numerous victims were found close to a nightclub.
Choi stated that many of the victims were young women in their twenties.
Witnesses described chaotic scenes moments before the stampede, with police on hand in preparation for the Halloween event struggling to keep crowds under control.
Moon Ju-young, 21, said there were clear signs of trouble in the alleys prior to the incident.
It was “at least more than ten times more crowded than usual,” he claimed.
Hundreds of people were crammed into the narrow, sloping alley, immobile and crushed as emergency personnel and police attempted to free them.
All of the fatalities, according to Choi, the fire chief for the Yongsan district, were most likely caused by the crush in the only small alley.
Multiple people who appeared to be unconscious were being treated in a chaotic scene by firefighters and bystanders in another video.
People continued to pour into the narrow alley, which was already packed wall-to-wall, when those at the top of the sloped street fell, sending those below them toppling over others, according to fire officials and witnesses.
Unknown woman, claiming to be the mother of a survivor, claimed that her daughter and others were trapped in the alley for more than an hour before being rescued.
A nearby building reportedly housed a temporary morgue, according to a Reuters witness. The witness claims that four dozen bodies were later moved to a government facility where they would be identified while being transported on wheeled stretchers.
Young South Koreans and foreigners alike frequent the Itaewon neighborhood, which had seen a sharp decline in business over the previous three years due to the pandemic but was packed on Saturday for Halloween.
Park Jung-hoon, 21, told Reuters from the scene that while there were large crowds and fireworks during Christmas, this was many times larger.
The dead included two foreigners, and other victims were taken to nearby hospitals.
Curfews on bars and restaurants, as well as a limit of 10 people for private gatherings, were lifted in April as the COVID pandemic eased. In May, the requirement for outdoor masks was repealed.
Authorities said they were looking into the incident’s exact cause.
The disaster is one of the country’s deadliest since a ferry sinking in 2014 that killed 304 people, mostly high school students.
The Sewol’s sinking and the criticism of the government’s response shocked South Korea and caused widespread introspection about the nation’s safety regulations, which are likely to be updated in the wake of Saturday’s crash.
President Yoon presided over an emergency meeting with senior aides and directed the formation of a task force to secure resources to treat the injured and to launch a thorough investigation into the disaster’s cause.
