Crush in Korea's Itaewon claims 156 lives, 26 foreign deaths reported

Halloween celebrations quickly turned to tragedy Saturday night in Seoul as crowds in Itaewon converged in a deadly crush.

People are treated on the street by emergency services. [KIM NAM-YOUNG]

Halloween celebrations quickly turned to tragedy Saturday night in Seoul as crowds in Itaewon converged in a deadly crush.

As of Tuesday, 156 deaths had been confirmed.

"It's truly horrific," President Yoon Suk-yeol said in an address to the nation on Sunday morning. He declared a period of national mourning and ordered the lowering of flags.

Of the dead, 97 are women and 54 are men. Early reports said that most of the victims were in their 20s.

Twenty-six foreigners from 14 countries died: five from Iran; four from China and Russia; two from the Japan and the United States; and one from Australia, Austria, France, Kazakhstan, Norway, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government received reports of 4,024 people missing as of 5 p.m. Sunday

"We thought we were going to die because there were far too many people," said Babette Vanderhaeghen, a Belgian resident of Seoul who was caught in the mayhem.

A crowd estimated at 100,000 was in and around the storied nightlife spot for early Halloween revelry Saturday when people departing the area ran into people arriving, coming together with tragic consequences in tightly packed alleyways.

Police officers and first responders patrol the main street in Itaewon, Yongsan District, central Seoul in the early morning hours of Sunday, after a stampede killed nearly 150 people during Halloween celebrations in the neighborhood. [LEE HO-JEONG]

The disaster began sometime after 10 p.m., with the first calls for help received at 10:24. Four emergency vehicles were dispatched 3 minutes later. A first-stage emergency response order was issued at 10:42 p.m., a second-stage order at 11:13 p.m. and a third-stage order at 11:50 p.m.

Between the second and third stages, emergency services from Incheon and Gyeonggi responded.

Most of the dead were found near the northwest corner of the Hamilton Hotel on narrow pedestrian streets in the main restaurant and bar area of Itaewon, which is in Yongsan District, central Seoul.

Casualties were taken to Soonchunhyang University Hospital, the National Medical Center, Ewha Womans University, Mokdong Hospital and Kangbuk Samsung Hospital. Dozens pronounced dead on the scene were first sent to a nearby gym so the hospitals could focus on the injured, but were rerouted to the hospitals.

Photos shared online showed bodies covered by blankets.

"It was people fighting to leave and people fighting to get in," one witness said.

A photo shared online shows a huge crowd in Itaewon, Yongsan District, on Saturday night. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

The witness, a Seoul resident, was leaving Itaewon's main pedestrian entertainment street via a small side street next to the Hamilton Hotel. He made it through before the crush turned deadly — at about 9:50 p.m. — but said that people were already panicking, with some in tears.

Another person caught in the surge noted a strange calm among those trapped, and while she was in fear, she didn't know the magnitude of the event until she heard sirens and got calls from overseas asking if she was safe.

The slope of the street and a slippery road surface from spilled drinks may have contributed to the disaster, with witnesses saying that people were sliding under the crowd, falling over each other and toppling like dominoes, according to local news reports.

At 5:00 a.m. on Sunday, the area was littered with scraps of clothing and remnants of Halloween costumes. A Korean man was frantically looking for his sister. Representatives from an embassy were searching for a citizen.

By number of deaths, it is the ninth worst man-made disaster in Korea's history — No. 1 being the 1995 collapse of Sampoong Department Store, in which 505 people died. Yonhap is calling the Itaewon tragedy the country's most deadly stampede.

President Yoon held an emergency meeting at the presidential office, which is close to Itaewon. From there, he personally directed rescue operations. The president arrived at the site at about 10:30 a.m. on Sunday.

"All related ministries and agencies should pull out all the stops to provide aid to the victims," he said in a statement.

The minister of health and welfare arrived on the scene at 1:40 a.m. Sunday morning. Tae Yong-ho, a People Power Party (PPP) legislator and a North Korean defector, was present in Itaewon at about 6:30 a.m.

Fire engines and emergency vehicles respond to incident in Itaewon. [YONHAP]

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon cut short his visit to Europe upon hearing the reports while in Rotterdam.

"Jill and I send our deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones in Seoul," U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement. "The United States stands with the Republic of Korea during this tragic time."

In the early hours of Sunday morning, news programs were bringing into question the response of police and emergency services, with some saying that it was too slow and others saying it was remarkably fast. In total, 1701 police and first responders were on the scene over the course of the evening and into the morning, according to the fire department.

On Thursday, Yongsan Police Precinct said that 200 officers were being assigned to patrol the area ahead of Halloween.

First responders move bodies from Itaewon, Seoul, Sunday. [YONHAP]

A police line blocks off the street near Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon where the majority of people crushed to death were found. [LEE HO-JEONG]

Ambulances and fire trucks are stationed on the main street in Itaewon. [LEE HO-JEONG]

BY PARK EUN-JEE, LEE HO-JEONG [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]