A serious and massive human stampede during a Halloween party in the Itaewon neighborhood of Seoul in South Korea has left at least 154 people dead and dozens injured, according to the latest report from the South Korean capital’s fire department.
Health authorities said that most of the dead were young people in their 20s. At least 26 foreigners, including one Thai national, were also among the victims, The Korea Herald reported.
Officials in Seoul said that at least 120 people were dead and 100 others were injured after a stampede in the South Korean capital's popular Itaewon district, where crowds had gathered to celebrate Halloween. https://t.co/auJuczo3Ll pic.twitter.com/7FXmfW8qab
— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 29, 2022
The tragic event occurred at around 22.22 local time on Saturday in the vicinity of the Hamilton Hotel, opposite the Itaewon subway station.
The incident is believed to have taken place in a sloping alleyway adjacent to the hotel. According to witnesses quoted by South Korean media, there was a collective fall at the top of the slope, which caused a chain collapse.
Images posted on social media show a large number of people trapped in the alley while emergency crews are trying to evacuate some of them.
An eyewitness quoted by Yonhap explained that “suddenly, everyone fell down and the people who were left below were crushed”. The Seoul Metropolitan Police has already opened an investigation.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has convened an emergency meeting of the Presidential Crisis Management Center in Yongsan, Seoul. Seoul Mayor Oh Se Hoon has also been informed and is returning from Europe after suspending a trip during which he was scheduled to visit four countries.
The death toll in Halloween stampede in South Korea's Seoul has risen to at least 146. #SouthKorea #Itaewon pic.twitter.com/OLAMYkCKAq
— Annu Kaushik (@AnnuKaushik253) October 29, 2022
Videos shared on social media show emergency crews practicing resuscitation maneuvers on dozens of people in the streets of Itaewon.
Authorities received the first emergency calls reporting that people were “buried” in a crowd at 22:24 hours (Seoul time). When the news broke, Yonhap news agency reported that some people had suffered a “cardiac arrest”, while others reported “difficulty in breathing”.
But the reality was much worse: when the scale of the disaster became known, there was a massive response: more than 1,700 emergency personnel were dispatched to the area on Saturday night, including 517 firefighters, 1,100 police and some 70 government workers.
Every year, the Itaewon neighborhood, adjacent to a U.S. military base, becomes the most crowded spot to celebrate Halloween in Seoul.
Police had previously reported that they expected a large gathering of some 100,000 people at the Halloween party where the tragedy occurred.
-Thailand News (TN)
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