South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol visited an altar set up near Seoul City Hall to mourn the 154 people killed in a crowd crush, as his government launched an investigation into one of the country’s deadliest incidents in years.
Yoon and his wife laid flowers and bowed their heads Monday to remember the people who were killed during Halloween festivities that drew tens of thousands of people to the Itaewon district of the capital. It is providing one of the greatest tests for his conservative government that has been in place for less than half a year but is already grappling with falling support.
All but one of the victims have been identified, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said in a briefing, and pledged the government will do all it can to help families who lost loved ones. Han called on people to avoid assigning blame as the investigation is underway. He also called for people to avoid using social media to spread unverified information, stoke hateful comments, or post disturbing images from the scene.
“The government will thoroughly investigate the cause of the accident and do its best to improve the necessary systems,” Han said.
A top police official said they had failed to predict the crowd collapse, according to Yonhap News. According to the Seoul Metro, a total of 130,131 passengers used the Itaewon subway station on the day of the incident compared to 96,845 during the last major Halloween event there in 2019.
“It was foreseen that a large number of people would gather there. But we didn’t expect that large-scale casualties would occur due to the gathering of many people,” Hong Ki-hyun, chief of the National Police Agency’s Public Order Management Bureau, was quoted as saying.
Witnesses and media reports indicate that as the crowd squeezed into the 3.2-meter wide alley, some began to fall, causing others to tumble and pile into one another. There is an abundance of video information available on the incident from security cameras in Itaewon and video taken from people in the area.
The area, known for its nightclubs and popular with foreign tourists and U.S. military staff, started attracting costume-clad revelers on Halloween about a decade ago. Nearly 100 of the victims were women and there were at least 26 foreigners killed, authorities said.
Major retailers canceled Halloween-themed promotions. Theme parks operated by Samsung C&T Corp. and Hotel Lotte Co. — Everland in Yongin and Lotte World in Jamsil — also halted Halloween-related parades and firework displays which had been scheduled throughout November.
Yoon, who is spending his day focused on the incident, declared a week-long mourning period. National flags at public buildings have been lowered to half-staff and government officials wore black ribbons to honor the victims.
The incident is the worst to take place in South Korea since the sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014 killed 304 people, which had led to criticism against the government for its slow response.
Experts have been trying for years to improve crowd management at major events, but deadly stampedes and crushes still occur at festivals, concerts and sports events around the world. Earlier in October, a stampede at a soccer stadium in Indonesia killed 125 people and injured hundreds after police fired tear gas to control violence on the pitch.
In South Korea, 11 people were killed in Sangju city in 2005 when crowds rushed into a concert venue. In 2006, 35 people were injured while trying to enter a theme park that was open for free in Seoul.
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(With assistance from Sohee Kim and Sam Kim.)
