South Korea in shock after 153 die in Halloween stampede: Here is all you need to know

(The story contains disturbing description and video)

SEOUL: Concerned relatives raced to hospitals in search of their loved ones Sunday 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, clogging the area's narrow alleyways and winding streets.

An estimated 100,000 people had gathered in Itaewon for the country’s biggest outdoor Halloween festivities since the pandemic began. The South Korean government eased COVID-19 restrictions in recent months.

Witnesses said the crowd surge in the capital's popular Itaewon area on Saturday night caused “hell-like” 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.

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 in the future".

"My heart is heavy and it is difficult to contain my sorrow," he added, before he visited the scene of the disaster and spoke to emergency workers.

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 bars and clubs have become hugely popular in recent years.

Itaewon, near where the former headquarters of U.S. military forces in South Korea operated before moving out of the capital in 2018, is an expat-friendly district known for its trendy bars, clubs and restaurants and it’s the city’s marquee Halloween destination.

VIEW PHOTOS | South Korea's worst-ever stampede

Rumours galore

In the absence of an immediate official explanation, rumours have exploded online.

Some users have speculated the stampede could have been triggered by a gas leak or a fire at one of the clubs, others claim the cause could have been a celebrity sighting. Online users also floated the possible use of drugs, with photos of purported "drug candies" allegedly handed out at the event circulating on Twitter.

Police have so far found no evidence of any of this. Experts, instead, point to policing and crowd control failures.

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How did people die?

Twitter user @janelles_story shared a video (see below) 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.

(This tweet contains disturbing video)

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!"

Eyewitnesses described to AFP that people were trapped in a narrow, sloping alleyway, and scrambling to get out of the suffocating crowd as people piled on top of one another.

"People couldn't move forward and were pushing and pushing, and it was a steep hill so people were falling on top of each other, collapsing on top of each other," eyewitness Jarmil Taylor, 40 told AFP. "People that were at the back were pushing and pushing because they had no idea what was going on in the front", he said.

Witnesses told Associated Press 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.

Passersby asked to administer first aid

A delay in emergency first aid could also have led to more deaths, critics said, pointing out that a lack of police at the scene meant that first responders initially struggled to reach victims through overcrowded alleyways. This delay was critical as many victims who suffered cardiac arrests may have passed the crucial "four-minute" window before help arrived, experts said.

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 who administered first aid to the victims described scenes of tragedy and chaos. "So many victims' faces were pale. I could not catch their pulse or breath and many of them had a bloody nose. When I tried CPR, I also pumped blood out of their mouths," Lee Beom-suk said.

AFP photos showed scores of bodies on the pavement covered by bed sheets, and emergency workers dressed in orange vests loading even more bodies on stretchers into ambulances.

A video that circulated on Twitter (see below) showed dozens of people coming to perform CPR on victims sprawled in the street; other footage showed people in costumes carrying limp bodies on their backs.

(This tweet contains disturbing video)

Another woman who had gone to Itaewon with her child to enjoy the festivities said she was asked to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on a handful of victims.

But others said people were too preoccupied with their phones to assist.

"I couldn't hold back my tears as no one offered to help but continued to film," as she performed CPR, one woman who identified herself as a nurse wrote on Twitter.

South Korea's tech companies including Kakao Talk, and Twitter Korea, have urged users to refrain from sharing graphic images of the disaster.

Ambulances and rescue workers gather near the scene in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo | AP)

First event sans Covid-19 restrictions

Local shopkeepers told AFP that the number of people at the annual celebration was "unprecedentedly large" this year -- the first event to be held without Covid-19 restrictions since the pandemic began.

"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," 30-year-old Jeon Ga-eul told AFP.

Where were the police?

As questions began to emerge over the lack of security at the event, Interior Minister Lee Sang-min told a briefing that the police force had been occupied on the other side of town.

"I am not certain about the exact number of police personnel deployed (to Itaewon) but 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 said. "The expected size of the crowd in Itaewon did not deviate much from the previous years, so I understand that the personnel were deployed at a similar scale as before," Lee Sang-min said.

In documents posted two days before the event, the police said they only planned to have 200 officers present for the Itaewon Halloween event.

Critics said this displayed a woeful lack of planning. "This is a man-made disaster prompted by a lack of awareness about safety," said Shin Dong-min, a professor at the Korea National University of Transportation. "Itaewon vendors and government officials should have had more preparations about a massive crowd gathering," he told YTN news.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, center left, visits the scene where dozens of people died and were injured in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo | AP)

Victims were young women mostly; foreigners included

Most of the victims were young women in their 20s.

The Interior Ministry said most victims had now been identified.

Seoul authorities said they had also received 355 reports of missing people by early Sunda

89 people were injured. There were concerns the death toll could grow as 24 people among the 104 being treated for injuries were in critical condition, according to Seoul City’s disaster headquarters.y.

The fire department said at least 19 foreigners, were killed in the stampede, which occurred around 10:00 pm on Saturday (6:30 PM IST).

The 19 foreigners killed included victims from Iran, Uzbekistan, China and Norway, Yonhap reported. Russia's Tass news agency said two of the victims were Russian. Chinese state news agency Xinhua said at least three Chinese nationals were killed.

Funerals and mournings

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 through Monday to reduce the number of partygoers who would come to the streets through Halloween Day.

Reactions pour in

Seoul's staunch ally, US President Joe Biden, said America "stands with" South Korea after the tragedy, while Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he was "hugely shocked and deeply saddened" by the disaster.

“Horrific news from Seoul tonight,” British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak tweeted. “All our thoughts are with those currently responding and all South Koreans at this very distressing time.”

S Korea's worst disasters

The last South Korean disaster this deadly also hit young people the hardest. In April 2014, 304 people, mostly high school students, died in a ferry sinking. The sinking exposed lax safety rules and regulatory failures. It was partially blamed on excessive and poorly fastened cargo and a crew poorly trained for emergency situations.

• It was also Asia’s second major crushing disaster in a month. On October 1, police in Indonesia fired tear gas at a soccer match, causing a crush that killed 132 people as spectators attempted to flee.
• In 2005, 11 people were killed and around 60 others were injured at a pop concert in the southern city of Sangju.
• In 1960, 31 people died after being crushed on the stairs of a train station as large crowds rushed to board a train during the Lunar New Year holidays.

(With inputs from AP and AFP)