SOUTHKOREA: South Korean PM visits scene of deadly pop concert

Record ID: 216621

  • Title: SOUTHKOREA: South Korean PM visits scene of deadly pop concert
  • Date: 17th October 2014
  • Summary: SEONGNAM, SOUTH KOREA (OCTOBER 17, 2014) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SHOTS) EXTERIOR OF HOSPITAL WHERE INJURED PEOPLE ARE BEING TREATED AMBULANCE IN FRONT OF EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT SIGN READING (Korean and English): "EMERGENCY MEDICAL CENTRE" NURSE IN HOSPITAL WOMAN ON PHONE AND CRYING PEOPLE WALKING INTO EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT PEOPLE GATHERED IN FRONT OF EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT VARIOUS OF
  • Embargoed: 1st November 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Korea, Republic of
  • Country: South Korea
  • Topics: Disasters,Entertainment,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAA3Z2V3IM430Q4SYDKY43MZDVT
  • Story Text: South Korea's Prime Minister made a sombre visit to the site of an open-air pop concert in the city of Seongnam on Friday (October 17), where sixteen people were killed when the cover of a ventilation shaft they were standing on gave way.
    About 27 people at the K-Pop concert fell more than 10 meters (32 feet) into the ventilation system when the cover they were standing on to get a better view of the stage gave way, Yonhap news agency and YTN television said.
    Footage filmed by the Gyeonggi fire station in the immediate aftermath of the accident showed dozens of badly injured people being stretched into a make-shift trauma ward which had been set up in an underground carpark.
    Eleven people were injured, many of them seriously, a government official in Pangyo district, just south of the capital Seoul, said.
    Prime Minister Chung Hong-won toured the site late on Friday and attended a debrief by local officials and fire-fighters.
    About 700 people were at the concert near a shopping mall where the group 4Minute was performing.
    The group features the singer and dancer Hyuna, who shot to fame after performing in the "Gangnam Style" music video by the South Korean rapper Psy.
    It was the latest in a string of accidents in South Korea, including the sinking of a ferry in April in which more than 300 people were killed, that has raised questions about safety and put pressure on authorities to tighten up standards.
    South Korea, Asia's fourth-largest economy and one of its leading manufacturing and export powerhouses, has developed into one of the world's most technically advanced countries, but faces criticism that regulatory controls have not kept pace.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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