CNA – The first call from the Itaewon area to South Korean police came at 6.34pm last Saturday, about four hours before a Halloween crowd in the nightlife district turned into a deadly situation.
The caller warned of a dangerous number of people jostling along a narrow alleyway, and urged the police to enforce crowd control before things went wrong.
“It’s a narrow alley. People are lining up outside the club, those coming up from Itaewon Station and those going out to the street.
Because they are all squeezed together, people can get crushed to death. You need to control the people on the driveway,” said a caller to the emergency line, according to a transcript of the call log seen by CNA.
In the next few hours, more calls would come in, alerting police to people collapsing on the streets and warning of the possibility of a major incident.
At 8.33pm: “Because of the crowd, people are collapsing. Things are getting out of control.”
9pm: “We are at Itaewon, and we are on the verge of a major incident because of the large crowd. People are being pushed, and I’m worried an incident will occur.”
9.07pm: “There are too many people in front of a bar, and it feels like we will be crushed to death. You need to come and control this.”
The final call to the police was received at 10.11pm, minutes before people began falling over each other.
“People will get crushed to death. There are too many people,” read the chilling transcript from the last caller.
Moments later, chaos erupted and at least 156 people were killed in a crowd crush along a steep, narrow alley leading from near the Itaewon subway station to entertainment venues along a main street.
In total, 11 such calls – each sounding increasingly desperate – were made to the police department’s 112 emergency line that Saturday evening.
South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Tuesday vowed to hold the police accountable for failing to respond to the emergency calls, and to prevent the tragedy despite having received multiple warnings.
Yoon Hee-keun, commissioner general of the Korean National Police Agency, acknowledged that his agency’s response to the incident was “insufficient”, and said a full investigation would be conducted to determine if officers had reacted appropriately.
“Even before the accident occurred, we received calls urgently warning of the danger of a possible incident due to the large crowds. However, the response by those at 112 was insufficient,” said Yoon.
The South Korean government faces growing public scrutiny as the country mourns the victims – who were mostly young party-goers in their 20s, dressed in costumes and out to celebrate the first Halloween in three years following the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions.
