Yoo Ah-in's agency denies rumors that actor was in Itaewon on day of crush

Actor Yoo Ah-in’s agency UAA issued a statement on Tuesday denying rumors that the actor was in central Seoul's Itaewon on the day of the horrific crowd crush that took more than 150 lives. “Yoo Ah-in had no part in what happened in ...

Actor Yoo Ah-in [YONHAP]

Actor Yoo Ah-in’s agency UAA issued a statement on Tuesday denying rumors that the actor was in central Seoul's Itaewon on the day of the horrific crowd crush that took more than 150 lives.

“Yoo Ah-in had no part in what happened in Itaewon,” the agency said. “He had business outside the country, so he left Korea on Oct. 29 and is currently overseas.”

Rumors have been spreading online that a big-name celebrity and an influencer were near the scene of the tragedy on the evening of Oct. 29 that led to such a large number of people swarming toward the area from multiple directions. Many names were mentioned by netizens who insisted they saw the celebrity there, and Yoo’s name was one of them.

Another influencer, Park Jung-kyu, who goes by BJ K on Africa TV, also posted a statement on Africa TV on Oct. 30 when netizens began to point fingers at him for allegedly causing the crush.

“I first want to express my deepest condolences to the victims. It really hurts. However, I’ve been receiving a lot of hate messages from people online saying that people were crowding over to the area where the crush happened to come to the bar that I was in, but that’s nonsense,” Park wrote. “I only had to go into one of the bars to escape the large crowd outside and stayed indoors for just 30 minutes because the bartenders said it looks too dangerous outside. The rumors are going out of hand. I just hope the police figure it out.”

BY YIM SEUNG-HYE [yim.seunghye@joongang.co.kr]