Rescue officials load a stretcher carrying a victim of the Halloween battle that left at least 150 people dead, into an ambulance in Itaewon district, Seoul on October 30, 2022.
Anthony Wallace | AFP | beautiful pictures
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol declared a time of national mourning on Sunday after a Halloween storm killed about 151 people in a crowded nightlife area in Seoul.
Yoon expressed condolences to the victims, mainly teenagers and those in their 20s, and wished a speedy recovery to those injured.
“This is truly a tragedy,” he said in a statement. “A tragedy and disaster that should not have happened happened in the heart of Seoul last night.”
A huge crowd celebrating in the popular Itaewon district flooded an alleyway on Saturday night, emergency officials said, adding that the death toll could rise.
Choi Sung-beom, head of Yongsan Fire Station, said 151 deaths have been confirmed, including 19 foreigners. He told a briefing at the scene 82 people were injured, 19 of them seriously.
This is the first Halloween event in Seoul in three years after the country lifted Covid-19 restrictions and social distancing. Many of those who attended the party were wearing masks and Halloween costumes.
Some witnesses described the crowd becoming increasingly unruly and agitated as it got dark. The incident took place around 10:20 a.m. (13:20 GMT).
“Some people fell during the Halloween festival, and we have a large number of casualties,” Choi said. Many of those killed were near a nightclub.
You’ll see huge crowds at Christmas and fireworks…but that’s ten times bigger than any of those.
Many of the victims were women in their 20s, while the foreigners killed included people from China, Iran, Uzbekistan and Norway, Choi said.
Witnesses described chaotic moments before the stampede, with police on duty anticipating the Halloween event sometimes having difficulty maintaining crowd control.
Moon Ju-young, 21, said there were clear signs of trouble in the alleys before the incident. “It was at least 10 times more crowded than usual,” he told Reuters.
Footage on social media showed hundreds of people crammed into the narrow, steep alley and motionless as emergency officials and police tried to pull them out.
Choi, the captain of the Yongsan district fire brigade, said all the deaths could have been caused by collisions in a single narrow alley.
Fire officials and witnesses said people continued to pour into the already walled alley, as those at the top of the street sloped down, causing those below to topple others.
One woman said her daughter, pulled from the stream, survived after being trapped for more than an hour.
A makeshift morgue was set up in a building next to the scene. About forty bodies were taken out on wheeled stretchers and transported to a government facility for identification of the victims, according to a Reuters witness.
The Itaewon district is popular with young Koreans as well as expats, and dozens of bars and restaurants filled up on Saturday for Halloween after business activities plummeted during the three-year pandemic.
Park Jung-hoon, 21, told Reuters from the scene: “You’ll see huge crowds around Christmas and fireworks … but the number is ten times bigger than anywhere else, Park Jung-hoon, 21, told Reuters.
US President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden sent their condolences, writing: “We grieve with the people of South Korea and send our best wishes for a speedy recovery to all those who lost their lives. injured person.”
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak tweeted: “All our thoughts are with those who are currently responding and all Koreans at this very sad time.”
With the easing of the Covid pandemic, curfews at bars and restaurants and the 10-person limit for private gatherings were lifted in April. An outdoor mask mission was abolished in May.
President Yoon held an emergency meeting with senior aides and ordered the creation of a task force to secure resources to treat the injured and launch a thorough investigation into the cause. of disaster.
The disaster was one of the country’s deadliest since a ferry sank in 2014 that killed 304 people, mostly high school students.
The sinking of the Sewol, and criticism of the official response, sent shockwaves across South Korea, prompting a widespread soul-searching over safety measures in the country that are likely to renewed after Saturday’s storm.
