SEOUL (AP) — A group of shocked relatives picked up bodies, parents searched for their children and a country searched for answers Sunday after at least 153 others were crushed to death when a crowd in South Korea stormed an alley during the Halloween festivities.
President Yoon Suk-yeol declared an era of national mourning and designated Seoul’s popular Itaewon district as a crisis zone after Saturday night’s crisis. Still from the morgue of the nation’s capital. A crowd celebrating in Itaewon burst into an alley, killing at least 153 people, with a maximum of twenty years old, emergency officials said, adding that the death toll could rise.
Revelers, some still teenagers and many in Halloween costumes, were able to enjoy bars, nightclubs and restaurants where festivities spanned narrow and occasionally steep streets. Release trapped bodies and perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on others lying on the rubble-strewn ground.
Choi Sung-beom, leader of the Yongsan fire station, told a briefing at the scene that 82 other people were wounded, 19 of them seriously. Among the dead were 22 foreigners, he said. Families and friends desperately sought to communicate about their loved ones at network centers converted into facilities for people in need. At least 90 percent of patients knew each other until noon, with delays affecting some foreigners and teenagers who did not yet have identity documents, the Interior Ministry said. Makeshift monuments began to appear near the site, with spectators leaving flowers and notes. South Korea and the worst stampedes in the world in decades. “This is indeed tragic,” he said in a statement, promising an investigation into the cause of the crisis. position in the center of Seoul last night. “
DISORDER, THEN CHAOS
South Korean mobile generation and gaming companies, as well as Kakao and NCSOFT, pulled their Halloween promotions after the tragedy, while amusement park Everland canceled Halloween-themed events. Many governments and regional organizations have cancelled or curtailed festivals and other celebrations.
The weight of partygoers came as Itaewon, a symbol of laid-back nightlife in South Korea’s decades-long capital that was just beginning to thrive after more than two years of COVID-19 restrictions, with trendy restaurants and department stores replacing seedy establishments. it was the first Halloween occasion in Seoul in 3 years in which COVID-19 restrictions and social distancing were virtually unenforced. Many revelers wore masks and costumes of Halloween. la people, the sick and their families questioned an obvious lack of crowd control.
Early Sunday, costumes and belongings were mixed with blood stains on the narrow street. Survivors huddled under emergency blankets amid a crowd of rescuers, police and media. Many of the dead were near a nightclub, Choi said. Among the foreigners killed were nationals of China, Iran, Uzbekistan and Norway, he said. Witnesses described the crowd becoming increasingly unruly and agitated as the night wore on. Chaos erupted just before 10:20 p. m. (13:20 GMT) stampede, with police on site for the occasion struggling to control the crowd, witnesses said. Moon Ju-young, 21, said there were clear symptoms of rioting in the alley before the incident.
He told Reuters there were more than 10 times more people than usual. Social media footage showed many other people crammed into the narrow, sloping road, crushed and motionless as emergency officials and police tried to let go. Choi, the leader of the Yongsan district chimney, said all the deaths were likely due to the crash in the alley.
IMPROVISED MORUGA
Firefighters and witnesses said other people continued to enter the driveway when it was already full from wall to wall, when those on the most sensitive part of the slope fell, sending other people under them overturning others. One woman said her daughter, pulled from the crowd of others, survived after being trapped for more than an hour.
A makeshift morgue was set up in a construction next to the stage. According to a Reuters witness, about 4 dozen bodies were transported on wheeled stretchers and transported to a government facility to identify the victims. Itaewon district is popular with young South Koreans. and expats alike, with dozens of bars and restaurants packed Saturday for Halloween after businesses suffered a steep drop in the 3 years of the pandemic. “You’d see big crowds at Christmas and fireworks. . . but it’s several times bigger than all that, Park Jung-hoon, 21, told Reuters from the scene. International leaders offered their condolences and added U. S. President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping, who noted that Chinese were among the dead and wounded.
With the COVID pandemic abating, curfews in bars and restaurants and a limit of 10 people for personal gatherings were lifted in April. of a task force to download resources to treat the wounded and launch a thorough investigation into the cause of the crisis. The crisis is the deadliest in the country since a ferry sank in 2014 that killed 304 people, mostly high school students. The sinking of the Sewol and the complaint of the official reaction shocked South Korea, prompting widespread introspection about safety measures in the country likely to be renewed following Saturday’s crash.