By Sophie Jeong, Gawon Bae, Paula Hancocks, Hilary Whiteman and Jessie Yeung, CNN
On peak weekends, the narrow alleyways of Itaewon, the neon-lit nightlife district of Seoul, South Korea’s capital, are packed with partygoers and tourists. Now it is the scene of one of the country’s worst disasters.
On Saturday night, tens of thousands of other people flocked to downtown Seoul to celebrate Halloween, but panic erupted as the crowd swelled, with some witnesses saying it had become difficult to breathe and move.
By Sunday, the death toll had risen to 154, with dozens more injured. Authorities have now launched a pressing investigation to uncover how what was meant to be a birthday night out so horribly wrong, as families across the country mourn and search for the lack of the enjoyed.
Here’s what we know so far.
Itaewon has long been a popular position to celebrate Halloween, especially as the holiday has become more popular in Asia in recent years. Some even come to Seoul from other countries in the region for the festivities.
But over the past two years, celebrations have been stifled by pandemic restrictions on crowd sizes and mask mandates.
Saturday night marked the first Halloween since the country lifted those restrictions, making it special for many enthusiastic attendees in Seoul, such as foreign visitors, as well as foreign citizens and tourists.
Paid hotels and events in the community had been booked in advance and crowds were expected.
Witnesses told CNN that there were very few, if any, crowds before the mass of other people turned deadly.
Videos and images posted on social media show other people crammed together, side by side on the narrow street.
The crowds are not for this region, nor for the residents of Seoul, who are used to the subways and crowded streets of a city of just 10 million people.
One witness said it took other people a while to realize something was wrong, and other people’s panicked cries competed with the deafening music from surrounding clubs and bars.
After the first emergency calls came in around 10:24 p. m. M. , the government rushed to the place, but the large number of other people made things difficult for those who needed help.
A video posted on social media showed other people doing compressions on other revelers lying on the ground waiting for medical assistance.
The thousands of other people in Halloween costumes contributed to the widespread sense of confusion and chaos. One witness described seeing a policeman shouting the crisis, but some revelers mistook him for another partygoer.
The cause of the crash is still under investigation, though authorities said there were no fuel leaks or fires at the site.
Those affected were young, most commonly teenagers and twenty-somethings, the government said. Known for its nightlife and trendy restaurants, Itaewon is popular with backpackers and foreign students.
Among the 154 dead were at least 26 foreign nationals, according to authorities, and those affected from countries including the United States, China, Iran, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Japan, Australia, Norway, France, Russia, Austria, Vietnam, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. . .
All the victims have been identified, South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-so said at a news conference on Monday. The death toll included 56 men and 97 women, South Korea’s Interior and Security Ministry said.
South Korea’s education ministry said Monday that six students were among the dead, one more in high school. Three were also killed.
At five o’clock in the afternoon on Sunday (4 a. m. ET), the number of injured had risen to 133, adding up to 37 seriously injured, the ministry said.
The Seoul city government said more than 4,000 reports of missing persons were received. That number may come only with reports from the same person, or reports filed Saturday night for other people who have been found since.
Police said there was no active search for missing persons as no one disappeared from the scene; Instead, they said missing person reports were used to help identify the dead.
Interior and Security Minister Lee Sang-min said Sunday that “an abundant number” of police and security forces were sent to the Seoul component on Saturday in reaction to the expected protests.
Meanwhile, in Itaewon, the crowd is not unusually large, he said, so only a “normal” point of security forces had been deployed there.
As the crisis spread Saturday night, more than 1,700 emergency response forces were dispatched, totaling more than 500 firefighters, 1,100 police and about 70 civil servants.
President Yoon Suk Yeol called an emergency assembly and suggested officials identify the dead as soon as possible.
But even hours later, families were still waiting to find out if their loved ones had survived.
Immediately afterward, many other people were taken to nearby facilities, while bodies were transported to various hospital morgues. Families gathered at sites near the scene, where officials collected the names of missing and deceased people.
Yoon vowed to put new measures in place to prevent similar incidents from happening again, saying the government would “conduct emergency inspections not only for Halloween occasions but also for local festivals and manage them very well so that they are conducted in an orderly and orderly manner. “
The government will also provide mental remedy and a fund for the families of the dead and injured. The authorities declared an era of national mourning until the fifth of November and designated Yongsan-gu district, where Itaewon is located, a special crisis area.
As a stunned and grieving country grapples with the tragedy, questions are also being raised about how such a crisis could have spread into a popular domain where other people are known to gather.
It is difficult to determine what may have triggered the accident; however, the government “would have expected peak numbers by Saturday night,” said Juliette Kayyem, a crisis management expert and CNN national security analyst.
“It is the duty of the government to monitor the volume of crowds in real time, so they can feel the need to get other people out,” he added.
Suah Cho, 23, got caught in the crowd but managed to escape to a building along the alley. When asked if he had noticed officials seeking to restrict the number of other people entering the entrance, he replied: “Before the incident, not at all. “
Another witness described the scenario “getting worse and worse” and said maybe they were just listening “to people asking for help for other people, because there weren’t enough rescuers capable of taking care of all this. “
El-CNN-Wire™
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