SEOUL — More than 150 people have been killed in a
stampede at a Halloween event in Seoul, officials said Sunday, with
South Korea’s president vowing a thorough investigation into one of the country’s
worst-ever disasters.
اضافة اعلان
The crowd surge and crush took place in the
capital’s popular central Itaewon district, where estimates suggest as many as
100,000 people — mostly in their teens and 20s — went to celebrate Halloween
Saturday night, clogging the area’s narrow alleyways and winding streets.
President Yoon
Suk-yeol declared a period of
national mourning Sunday, telling the country in a televised address that “a
tragedy and disaster occurred that should not have happened”.
He said the government “will thoroughly investigate
the cause of the incident and make fundamental improvements to ensure the same
accident does not occur again”.
Witnesses described being trapped in a narrow,
sloping alleyway, and scrambling to get out of the suffocating crowd as people
piled on top of one another.
“There were so many people just being pushed around
and I got caught in the crowd and I couldn’t get out at first,” 30-year-old
Jeon Ga-eul told AFP.
The interior ministry said 153 people had died,
including 20 foreigners, in the stampede, which occurred around 10pm local
time.
Most of the victims were young women in their 20s,
it said, adding that 133 people were injured.
An official from the defense ministry said three
military personnel were among the dead.
Authorities also said they had received more than
2,600 reports of people missing.
‘Unprecedentedly large’
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, who
rushed back to South Korea from a work trip in Europe, said his office would
set up a memorial altar so the public could pay their respects to the victims,
starting Monday morning.
“Most of the casualties are young people like our
sons and daughters, which makes it even more sad,” Oh said while visiting the
site of the disaster.
Officials said Sunday they had no clear idea of what
caused the crush, while witnesses described scenes of chaos after a vast crowd
panicked in the narrow alleyway.
Local shopkeepers told AFP the number of people at
the annual celebration was “unprecedentedly large” this year — the first public
event to be held without COVID-19 restrictions since the pandemic began.
As questions began to emerge over a lack of security
at the event, interior minister Lee Sang-min told a briefing that the police
force had been preoccupied on the other side of town.
“A considerable number had been deployed at
Gwanghwamun where a large crowd was expected for a protest,” he said.
Police had also not expected such a large crowd at
the Halloween event, he added.
Paramedics at the scene, quickly overwhelmed by the
number of victims, were asking passers-by to administer first aid.
In an interview with local broadcaster YTN, Lee
Beom-suk, a doctor at the event, described the chaos.
“So many victims’ faces were pale. I could not catch
their pulse or breathing and many of them had a bloody nose. When I tried CPR,
I also drew blood out of their mouths.”
Photos captured by AFP showed scores of bodies on
the pavement covered by bed sheets, and emergency workers loading more bodies
on stretchers into ambulances.
‘Oh my God’
Twitter user @janelles_story
shared a video that she said showed Itaewon shortly before the stampede in
which hundreds of young people, many in elaborate Halloween costumes, are seen
in a narrow street lined with bars and cafes.
The crowd appears in good spirits at first, but then
a commotion begins and people start being pushed into one another. Screams and
gasps are heard and a female voice cries out in English “Shit, shit!” followed
by “Oh my God, oh my God!”
The interior ministry said the 20 foreigners killed
included people from the US, Uzbekistan, Austria, Norway, Vietnam, Kazakhstan,
Iran, and Sri Lanka.
The US embassy in
Seoul confirmed that two US
nationals had died. Russia said three of its citizens were killed.
China also confirmed that four of its nationals had
died, with President Xi Jinping sending “deep condolences” to Seoul.
President
Joe Biden said the US “stands with” South
Korea after the tragedy, while Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he was
“hugely shocked and deeply saddened”.
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