Police Caught More than 200 People Who Entered an Unlicensed Club in Gangnam: A Violation of the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act

[경향신문]

Amid growing concerns of a fourth wave of the novel coronavirus, the police caught over 200 guests and employees of an unlicensed club in Gangnam, Seoul.

On April 11, the Seoul Suseo Police Station announced that at around 9:25 p.m. April 10, the police caught over 200 guests and employees of an unlicensed club in Yeoksam-dong, near Gangnam Station and arrested the owner for violating the Food Sanitation Act. The business operation, which was registered as a general restaurant, was run in the form of a club, with stereo systems and special lighting installed. Some of the guests dancing in the club, which spanned an area slightly over 264m2, did not follow government measures, such as wear masks and keep a distance. Reportedly, most of the guests were people in their thirties and forties who had met in a Latin dance club.

Some citizens called 112 and reported, “Hundreds of people have gathered to dance,” and asked, “At a time like this, isn’t this dangerous?” and the police arrived on the scene. The guests at the club protested the raid and asked the police, “What crime did we commit? On what grounds are you doing this?”

The police dispatched over fifty officers in the latest raid from the everyday order section and the Dogok patrol unit of Suseo Police Station and from the mobile police force. The Gangnam-gu Office, which joined the latest raid, plans to impose fines on the people caught for violating the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act.

This year, despite the joint arrests by the police and the gu office, unlicensed clubs continue to operate in the Gangnam area. On January 31, officials arrested over 70 guests and employees for running an unlicensed club in Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu. At the time of the police raid, there were people keeping watch at the club entrance, and people already drunk were constantly spotted entering the building.

The spread of COVID-19 triggered at clubs and bars in Busan is refusing to die down, so the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency has been cracking down on illegal business operations from April 2, when physical distancing was tightened, and will continue until April 18.