There was deep silence in the air around the site where, the night before, 153 people had died in a crowd crush in one of Seoul’s most popular nightlife districts. It was a warm Sunday afternoon filled with shock and disbelief.
Locals and foreign residents gathered behind police ribbons in the vicinity of Itaewon station to pay their respects to the deceased and attempt to make sense of what had occurred hours earlier. The crowd crush was one of the worst disasters the country has seen in years.
“It’s really shocking,” said Nikolaj Ravnsbo, a Korean language student from Denmark. “I noticed ambulances, but I didn’t realise what it was about. The police were telling people to leave.”
Tens of thousands of people had flocked to Itaewon’s streets to celebrate Halloween, catch up with friends and have a good time. After more than two years of Covid restrictions, it was one of the first big party dates.
While Halloween is not a traditional Korean holiday, it has become a highlight of the nightlife calendar, and Itaewon, also known as Seoul’s “international” district, is frequently regarded as the place to be for such a celebration.
The incident happened on a narrow sidestreet near Itaewon station that connects to a slew of bars and clubs from the main road. On the afternoon after the disaster, passersby were not permitted to approach, while local and international media gathered in front of the street, which was still littered with rubbish and pumpkin-shaped Halloween balloons.
The exact cause of the crowd crush is still unknown, but many onlookers behind police lines were eager to share their theories.
“This was bound to happen. There should have been crowd control,” one senior citizen said, looking over at the sidestreet where the tragedy occurred. A woman standing next to him disagreed. “You could never control that many people,” she said. Others joined the discussion. Some claimed a famous vlogger had been in the street, causing excitement in an already overcrowded area.
The South Korean president, Yoon Suk-yeol, has promised a thorough investigation into the tragedy. Details are still scarce, but testimonials and social media footage suggested many people fell to the ground in the narrow lane, while others pushed to enter or leave it.
There will also be questions about whether there was enough security to control the crowds, which have always been large on the eve of Halloween.
Kim Ye-ji, a young woman from Seoul, arrived to place flowers near an exit of Itaewon station. While she was not present at the scene the previous night, she wanted to pay her respects.
She said the images of body bags lining the streets had been deeply upsetting, and that she did not know how to recover from what she had seen.
“How could this happen? I feel terrible for the families of the deceased,” she said. “I feel traumatised now, and don’t know what to do. I hope we will all be able to heal as a community.
“I couldn’t believe it when I saw the images on social media. It’s heartbreaking and unfortunate.”
Ravnsbo said that he, too, did not witness the crush, but saw a person who appeared to be unconscious being carried away on a stretcher before realising something terrible had occurred. “We then began receiving emergency alerts on our phones, indicating that something serious was happening.”
Another witness at the scene, who did not want to be identified, said she saw the entire crush. “It was terrible,” she said, crying. “I don’t even know what I can say right now.”
