Sixteen people watching an outdoor pop concert in South Korea fell 20 metres to their deaths on Friday when a ventilation grate they were standing on collapsed, officials said.
Photos of the scene in Seongnam, just south of Seoul, showed a deep concrete shaft under the broken grate. A Seongnam official announced the deaths during a televised briefing and said that 11 others were seriously injured. The official didn’t provide his name and didn’t take questions from reporters.
Fire officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of office rules, earlier said that the victims were standing on the grate while watching an outdoor performance by girls’ band 4Minute, which is popular across Asia.
About 700 people had gathered to watch the concert, which was part of a local festival, the Yonhap news agency reported. The YTN television network, citing unidentified witnesses, said many of the spectators were female students. The victims weren’t immediately identified.