SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (AP) – Concerned relatives raced to hospitals in search of their loved ones yesterday as South Korea mourned the deaths of at least 153 people, mostly in their teens and 20s, who got trapped and crushed after a huge Halloween party crowd surged into a narrow alley in a nightlife district in Seoul.
Witnesses said the crowd surge in the Itaewon area on Saturday night caused chaos as people fell on each other “like dominos”. Some people were bleeding from their noses and mouths while being given CPR, witnesses said, while others clad in Halloween costumes continued to sing and dance nearby, possibly without knowing the severity of the situation.
“I still can’t believe what has happened,” said Kim Mi Sung, an official at a non-profit organisation that promotes tourism in Itaewon.
Kim said she performed CPR on 10 people who were unconscious and nine of them were declared dead on the spot.
Kim said the 10 were mostly women wearing witch outfits and other Halloween costumes.
The crowd surge is the country’s worst disaster in years.
Tens of thousands of people were believed to have gathered in Itaewon for Halloween festivities. Witnesses said the streets were so densely clogged with people and slow-moving vehicles that it was practically impossible for emergency workers and ambulances to reach the alley near Hamilton Hotel swiftly.
There were concerns the death toll could grow as 24 peo-ple among the 104 being treated for injuries were in critical condition, according to Seoul City’s disaster headquarters.
The city government said over 2,600 people have called or visited a nearby city office, reporting missing relatives and asking officials to confirm whether they were among those injured or dead after the crush.
The dead included 19 foreigners, said Seoul’s Yongsan fire department Chief Choi Seong-beom, whose jurisdiction includes Itaewon. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry did not confirm the nationalities of those victims, but it said it alerted those countries’ embassies in Seoul.
The Chinese state news agency Xinhua said at least three Chinese nationals were killed.
The bodies of the dead were being kept at 42 hospitals in Seoul and nearby Gyeonggi province, according to Seoul City, which said it will instruct crematories to burn more bodies per day as part of plans to support funeral proceedings.
Around 100 businesses in the Hamilton Hotel area have agreed to shut down their shops until today to reduce the number of partygoers who would come to the streets through Halloween day. An estimated 100,000 people had gathered in Itaewon for the country’s biggest outdoor Halloween festivities since the pandemic began. While Halloween isn’t a traditional holiday in South Korea, where children rarely go trick-or-treating, it’s still a major attraction for young adults, and costume parties at entertainment establishments have become hugely popular in recent years.
Itaewon, near where the former headquarters of United States (US) military forces operated before moving out of the capital in 2018, is an expat-friendly district known for its trendy establishments and it’s the city’s marquee Halloween destination.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol declared a one-week national mourning period yesterday and ordered flags at government buildings and public offices to fly at half-staff.
During a televised speech, Yoon said supporting the families of the victims, including their funeral preparations, and the treatment of the injured would be a top priority for his government.
