Haunting images show the belongings of the South Korean Halloween crush, as families from across the globe mourn the loss of their loved ones.
Officials have gathered the belongings of the victims at a gym, in the wake of the deadly accident which saw more than 150 young people die - most were in their teens and 20s, and women outnumbered men among the victims.
Among those killed in Itaewon, Seoul’s neighbourhood where the Halloween festivities took place, were citizens of the US, China, Iran, Norway, France, Australia, and Uzbekistan.
In the first unmasked event since the coronavirus pandemic broke out, revellers crammed into an alleyway barely 11 feet wide, and a bottleneck of human traffic made it difficult to breathe and move.
The alley became clogged by about 450 partygoers, before people began to topple over "like dominoes", according to witnesses.
People were yelling: “Please don’t come out, people are dying" as the crowd surged forward to try to make their way out and trod on bodies.
Yoon Suk Yeol, South Korea’s president, has declared a week-long period of national mourning, and it has emerged that Seoul police assigned just 137 officers to manage the crowd of revellers.
By comparison, nearly 7,000 police officers were sent to another part of the South Korean capital on Saturday to monitor protests that had fewer people than there were in the popular nightlife district of Itaewon, where the crush happened.
“This is clearly a man-made disaster,” said Park Ji-hyun, a leader of the opposition Democratic Party, in a Facebook post.
“The government must take responsibility for failing to control the crowd, even when a bigger crowd was expected this year than last.”
South Korea’s home minister, Lee Sang-min, said police forces were overextended throughout the city on Saturday to deal with large protests rallies. He said: “I doubt that the problem in Itaewon could have been solved even if we dispatched police and firefighters in advance.”
Kim Gihyeon, a senior leader of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s governing People Power Party, said Mr Lee should “watch his mouth,” and blamed the local police for failing to control the crowds.
