‘Felt like an accident was bound to happen’

Cops inspect the scene in Seoul, on Sunday. Pic/AFP

Witnesses and bystanders South Korean Halloween disaster said they sensed something wasn't right when a sea of revellers descended on Seoul's Itaewon district upon Saturday night.

"My friend said ‘something terrible is happening outside'," said Jeon Ga-eul, 30, who was enjoying a drink at a bar at the moment the stampede hit.

"I said: what are you talking about? And then I went outside to see and there were people doing CPR in the street."

The district is dotted with undulating, twisted alleyways on either side of the main road.

The crowd was exceptionally dense on Saturday night, said witnesses, with Jeon saying that even ahead of the disaster, he had felt unsafe.

"There were so many people just being pushed around and I got caught in the crowd and I couldn't get out at first too," he said. "I felt like an accident was bound to happen."

The stampede took place in a narrow alley near the Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon.

Faced with a huge number of victims, the rescuers asked passers-by to administer first aid and perform CPR on victims in the streets.

How it started

. Officials and witnesses said people continued to pour into a 10-foot-wide alley while it was already packed wall-to-wall
. At the time, about 1 lakh people had filled Itaewon's streets for the biggest festivities since the easing of COVID curbs
. When those at the top of the sloped street fell, it sent others below them toppling over others, triggering mayhem

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