Halloween festivities turn fatal due to overcrowding in South Korean capital; most victims teens
Paramedics with a victim at the Itaewon district of Seoul, on Saturday night. Pic/AFP
South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol declared a period of national mourning on Sunday after a Halloween crush killed some 153 people in a packed nightlife area in Seoul. Yoon expressed condolences to the victims, mostly teenagers and people in their 20s, and his wishes for a speedy recovery to the many injured in one of South Korea’s worst disasters and the world’s worst stampedes in decades.
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“This is truly tragic,” he said in a statement. “A tragedy and disaster that should not have happened took place in the heart of Seoul last night.”
A huge crowd celebrating in the popular Itaewon district surged into an alley on Saturday night, emergency officials said, adding the death toll could rise. Choi Sung-beom, head of the Yongsan Fire Station, told a briefing at the scene 82 people were injured, 19 of them seriously. The deaths included 22 foreigners, he said.
South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol
Families and friends desperately sought words of loved ones at community centres that had become makeshift facilities for missing persons. As of midday, the Interior Ministry said at least 90 per cent of the victims had been identified, with delays affecting some foreign nationals and teenagers who did not yet have identification cards.
South Korean tech and mobile game firms including Kakao and NCSOFT pulled their Halloween promotions after the tragedy, while amusement park Everland cancelled Halloween-themed events. Many regional governments and organisations have cancelled or reduced festivals and other celebrations.
It was the first Halloween event in Seoul in three years to be virtually free of COVID-19 restrictions and social distancing. Many of the partygoers were wearing masks and Halloween costumes. The disaster is among the country’s deadliest since a 2014 ferry sinking that killed 304 people, mainly high school students.
Tragedy in numbers
. 1L Estimated no. of revellers assembled
. 82 No. of injured
. 22 No. of foreigners killed due to overcrowding
. 304 No. of people died in a ferry mishap in South Korea in 2014
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