South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared a one-week national mourning period on Sunday and ordered flags at Government buildings and public offices to fly at half-staff after a horrific Saturday night Halloween crowd surge claimed 151 lives.
World leaders and the Pope offered condolences at the tragedy. Along with the US, UK, China, Japan, France and Singapore, India, too, expressed shock and grief at the loss of lives. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday condoled the deaths and said India stands in solidarity with that country during this difficult time.
There were chaotic and tragic scenes on Sunday as concerned relatives raced to hospitals in search of their loved ones, mostly in their teens and 20s, who got trapped and crushed after a huge Halloween party crowd surged into a narrow alley in a nightlife district in Seoul.
There were concerns that Saturday’s death toll of 151 could grow as 24 people among the 104 being treated for injuries were in a critical condition, according to Seoul City’s disaster headquarters.
The city Government said more than 2,600 people have called or visited a nearby city office reporting missing relatives and asking officials to confirm whether they were among those injured or dead after the crush.
Witnesses said the crowd surge in the Itaewon area on Saturday night caused “a hell-like” chaos as people fell on each other “like dominos.” Some people were bleeding from their noses and mouths while being given CPR, witnesses said, while others clad in Halloween costumes continued to sing and dance nearby, possibly without knowing the severity of the situation.
“I still can’t believe what has happened. It was like a hell,” said Kim Mi Sung, an official at a non-profit organisation that promotes tourism in Itaewon. Kim said she performed CPR on 10 people who were unconscious and nine of them were declared dead on the spot. Kim said the 10 were mostly women wearing witch outfits and other Halloween costumes.
The crowd surge is the country’s worst disaster in years. Tens of thousands of people were believed to have gathered in Itaewon for Halloween festivities. Witnesses said the streets were so densely clogged with people and slow-moving vehicles that it was practically impossible for emergency workers and ambulances to reach the alley near Hamilton Hotel swiftly. The dead included 19 foreigners, said Choi Seong-beom, chief of Seoul’s Yongsan fire department, whose jurisdiction includes Itaewon. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry did not confirm the nationalities of those victims, but it said it alerted those countries’ embassies in Seoul.
The Chinese state news agency Xinhua said at least three Chinese nationals were killed.
The bodies of the dead were being kept at 42 hospitals in Seoul and nearby Gyeonggi province, according to Seoul City, which said it will instruct crematories to burn more bodies per day as part of plans to support funeral
proceedings. Around 100 businesses in the Hamilton Hotel area have agreed to shut down their shops through Monday to reduce the number of partygoers who would come to the streets through Halloween Day.
An estimated 100,000 people had gathered in Itaewon for the country’s biggest outdoor Halloween festivities since the pandemic began. The South Korean Government eased Covid-19 restrictions in recent months.
