- Title: File footage of South Korea's deadly Halloween crush
- Date: 25th November 2022
- Summary: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (RECENT - OCTOBER 30, 2022) (REUTERS) YOON POINTING WHILE SPEAKING WITH EMERGENCY RESPONDERS AT SCENE OF CRUSH YOON LOOKING ON AND WALKING AWAY EXTERIOR OF COMMUNITY CENTRE WHERE PEOPLE GO TO ENQUIRE ABOUT LOVED ONES MISSING IN HALLOWEEN CRUSH FAMILY MEMBER OF MISSING PERSON CRYING, SITTING DOWN
- Embargoed: 9th December 2022 00:56
- Keywords: Halloween Itaewon Seoul South Korea crush deaths investigation police safety management
- Location: SEOUL, NAMYANGJU, SOUTH KOREA
- City: SEOUL, NAMYANGJU, SOUTH KOREA
- Country: South Korea
- Topics: Asia / Pacific,Ground Accidents/Collisions,Disaster/Accidents
- Reuters ID: LVA007161023112022RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The Itaewon district in South Korea's capital is known to revelers as a place of fun, freedom and openness. But its narrow, steep streets and constrained access points proved a lethal mix for Halloween partygoers who became trapped in a crowd crush on the night of Oct. 29 and left more than 150 people dead.
The evening had begun with optimism. South Korea was marking Halloween almost free of the COVID-19 restrictions that had dampened recent years' festivities, and Itaewon was ready to party. The crowd was mostly young; many wore colorful costumes as they converged on the area with friends.
Authorities say more than twice as many people left Itaewon metro station on Oct. 29 than the year before, with as many as 100,000 estimated to be in the area. Three narrow streets and alleyways leading to the station were particularly crammed.
What none of the people realized as they inched toward the Hamilton Hotel was that in the swarm ahead, revelers increasingly fearful of the crowd’s density had been calling police for hours, with little response. According to police, 11 emergency calls were made from Itaewon before the crush turned deadly.
As people gradually broke or were pulled free, bystanders and a handful of emergency workers performed CPR on dozens of unconscious people splayed across the streets.
As of Nov. 16, government figures put the death toll at 156 and another 198 people injured, with most of the victims in their twenties and thirties. Among the dead, dozens of whom suffered cardiac arrest, were at least six school students, as well as 26 foreign nationals from 14 countries.
A day after the incident, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol declared a week-long period of national mourning and ordered a thorough investigation on the incident.
The National Police Commissioner, Yoon Hee-keun, acknowledged that crowd control was inadequate, and the president said it was critical to improve emergency responses. Police on Nov. 2 released transcripts of emergency calls that showed increasing distress among revelers as the crowd swelled, providing nearly four hours of warnings that went mostly unheeded.
The police have faced stringent public criticism and scrutiny over its responses during the tragedy, having dispatched just 137 officers to the area despite estimating in advance as many as 100,000 people would gather.
(Production: Hyeyeon Kim, Minwoo Park) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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