Seoul Halloween stampede: Panicked emergency calls reveal crowd’s surge fears

South Korea’s police chief today said that crowd control in the area where a crush killed more than 150 party-goers in central Seoul was “inadequate.”

Yoon Hee-keun made the remark at a news briefing televised live, saying he felt heavy responsibility over the incident, where a surge in Halloween partiers trapped in narrow alleys killed 155 people and injured another 152.

Seoul police said they’ve launched a 475-member task force to investigate the crush.

Officers have obtained videos taken by about 50 security cameras in the area and are also analysing video clips posted on social media.

They have interviewed more than 40 witnesses and survivors so far, senior police officer Nam Gu-Jun told reporters Monday.

Other police officers said they are trying to find exactly when and where the crowd surge started and how it developed. They said a team of police officers and government forensic experts searched the Itaewon area on Monday.

“The government will thoroughly investigate the cause of the incident and do its best to make necessary improvements of systems to prevent a similar accident from recurring,” prime minister Han Duck-soo said at the start of a government meeting on the disaster.

The Itaewon area, famous for its cosmopolitan atmosphere, is the country’s hottest spot for Halloween-themed events and parties, which have grown increasingly popular among young South Koreans in recent years.

An estimated 100,000 people were gathered there on Saturday night for the country’s largest Halloween celebration since the pandemic began.

The death toll from Saturday’s Halloween crush has risen to 156, the South Korean interior ministry says.

More than 100,000 people had descended on the South Korean capital of Seoul on Saturday night, excited for the city’s first grand Halloween celebration in three years, a night that turned into an unimaginable tragedy when one of the deadliest stampedes the country has ever seen erupted.

The incident happened in Seoul’s popular Itaewon district, when a huge crowd surged into a narrow downhill alley, causing hundreds of young partygoers, mainly in their 20s and 30s to become crushed in the melee.

The death toll from the disaster now stands at 154, including 22 foreign nationals and the well-known actor Lee Ji-han, 24.

At least 26 foreign nationals have died in the Saturday night’s Seoul stampede.

One of the Americans killed was Anne Gieske, a University of Kentucky nursing student from northern Kentucky who was doing a study-abroad programme in South Korea, the university said in a statement. The other was Steven Blesi, 20, his father, Steve Blesi, wrote on Twitter after earlier seeking information about his son.

Blesi appealed for information after not hearing from his son, asking: “If anyone has any news please share.”

After a flood of responses offering help and support, he tweeted, “We just got confirmation our son died,” followed by “Thank you for the outpouring of love. We need time to grieve.”

Australian victim Grace Rached, a Sydney film production assistant, was described by her family as “our life of the party.” Her family said in a statement that: “We are missing our gorgeous angel Grace, who lit up the room with her infectious smile.”

The Japanese dead included Mei Tomikawa, who was studying Korean language in Seoul, according to Japanese media. Her father, Ayumu Tomikawa, told Japanese public broadcaster NHK that his daughter “really liked South Korea and was enjoying her life there.”

Halloween festivities in Itaewon have no official organisers, and South Korean police said on Monday they don’t have any specific procedures for handling incidents such as crowd surges during an event that has no organisers.

Police said they dispatched 137 officers to maintain order during Halloween festivities on Saturday, much more than the 34-90 officers mobilised in 2017, 2018 and 2019 before the pandemic.

Citing those figures, police dismissed as “different from the truth” speculation that a police station in the area was understaffed because it was providing extra security for Yoon, who earlier moved the presidential office to a site near Itaewon.

They said police-provided security for presidents has long been handled by two special police units which have nothing to do with the Yongsan police station, whose jurisdiction includes Itaewon.

Following Saturday’s Halloween crush, many hotels, department stores, amusement parks and other businesses canceled Halloween-themed events.

The crowd surge was South Korea’s deadliest disaster since 2014, when 304 people, mostly high school students, died in a ferry sinking.

The sinking exposed lax safety rules and regulatory failures. It was partially blamed on excessive and poorly fastened cargo and a crew ill-trained for emergency situations. Saturday’s deaths will likely draw public scrutiny of what government officials have done to improve public safety standards since the ferry disaster.

President Yoon Suk-yeol on Sunday declared a one-week national mourning period and ordered flags at government buildings and public offices to fly at half staff. He said better responses were critical, including improved crowd control.

“We should come up with concrete safety measures to manage crowds, not only on these streets where this massive disaster took place but at other places like stadiums and concert venues where large crowds gather,” he said at a cabinet meeting.

All the victims have been identified and memorial altars have been set up at the Seoul city hall and in the Itaewon district, where citizens paid their respects.

Lee has come under sharp public criticism for his comments about the role of police. On social media, some Koreans said precautions were inadequate for an event that had been expected to draw large crowds.

The government opened special memorial sites on Monday in Seoul and other major cities. Tens of thousands of people, including Yoon and other top officials visited the sites, placed white flowers and bowed deeply. Many people also laid chrysanthemums, bottles of Korean “soju” liquor, candles and snacks near an Itaewon subway station and posted a host of condolence messages.

South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol has called for better safety measures to prevent accidents with large numbers of casualties, saying the Halloween crush that killed more than 150 in the capital shows the importance of crowd management, his office said.

Mr Yoon made the remarks as he presided over a cabinet meeting this morning, and police began investigating how a crowd surge among Halloween party-goers trapped in narrow alleys killed so many.