S. Korea in weeklong mourning after the horrific Halloween stampede death of 154

[Photo by Yonhap]

South Korea went into a weeklong mourning for one of the worst deadly disasters in years from a human stampede in the first unrestricted youthful Halloween night in three years that killed 154 including 26 foreigners and injured 149 Saturday night at Itaewon, Yongsan District in Seoul.

By Monday, disaster authorities confirmed identities of 153 who died – mostly in their 20s from suffocation – and added that patients in critical condition fell to three from 36, without additional death on Sunday. Of 11 teenagers who died, one was a middle school student and five high school students from Seoul, according to the education ministry.

Although Koreans rarely go on a trick-or-treating to celebrate the western tradition of Halloween, clubbing and partying in costumes have become popular among young Korean adults, with Itaewon - an expat and tourist district that used to serve American soldiers brimmed with bars and clubs - becoming the usual after-dark hangout destination.

Tens of thousands of people gathered in the neighborhood on Saturday for the first Halloween weekend night in three years without social constraints against virus spread.

Tragedy happened at about 10 p.m. in a small, 3~4 meter wide and 45 meter long alley near Hamilton Hotel, where crowds were forced to squeeze up to World Food Street from the roadside and down to Itaewon Station. Crowds were stifled with hardly any room to wiggle.

There were shouts and shovels until pushes from behind sent the crowd crumbling down in domino.

[Photo by Yonhap]

The emergency authority received its first call at about 10:15 p.m. that 10 people collapsed beneath the crowd. It then received 81 calls in an hour about people having respiratory issues. Fire officials that were on standby were sent immediately, but the site was already a pandemonium with hundreds of people lying in cardiac arrest and respiratory arrest.

The rescue authorities were not able to approach the site easily as the two-lane passage was not closed like in the past year.

The police and fire authorities who issued first-stage emergency response 30 minutes after it received the first call raised the level to the highest third stage in an hour as casualties mounted.

A total 2,692 workers, 233 equipment, and 142 ambulances went into rescue work.

Seoul asked 15 university hospitals in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province for Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) support.

More than half of the dead were female. Among 26 foreigners who died from the incident, five were from Iran, four from China, four from Russia, two from the United States, two from Japan, and one each from France, Australia, Norway, Austria, Vietnam, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Sri Lanka.

Leaders from around the world, including U.S. President Joe Biden, China’s Xi Jinping, and Japan’s Fumio Kishida offered condolences.

“Jill and I send our deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones in Seoul,” Biden said in a statement. “We grieve with the people of the Republic of Korea and send our best wishes for quick recovery to all those who were injured.”

“The Alliance between our two countries has never been more vibrant or more vital – and the ties between our people are stronger than ever. The United States stands with the Republic of Korea during this tragic time,” he said.

In previous stampede cases, Korea lost 67 lives when 30,000 audiences at Busan Municipal Stadium in the southern city of Busan gathered to narrow entrances and exits to avoid sudden rain in July 1959. A total of 31 were killed and 40 injured at Seoul Station platform in January 1960 as people gathered to visit hometowns for Lunar New Year holiday. A total of 11 people were also killed and 145 injured in a pop concert in Sangju, North Gyeongsang Province, in October 2005.

Unlike the past stampede, liability would be hard to identify.

“Normally there would be an organizer of an event that should take responsibility over safety,” said an unnamed official from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. “It is hard to pin down the responsibility over the casualties in this case,” he added.

It remains to be seen whether the incident is seen as a “serious civil disaster” where the last person in charge could face criminal punishment.

The Seoul city government and police however would become liable for slack preemptive safety actions against massive crowds in the first major Halloween festival night since the lifting of virus restrictions. Although a gathering of 100,000 was projected, it allocated only 200 police officers around the neighborhood.

[ㄏ Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]