Seoul: A raucous Halloween celebration in the swinging center of the South Korean capital morphed Saturday night into a grim procession of bodies after at least 151 people were killed in the crush of a crowd stuck in a narrow roadway, officials said. The dead included 19 foreigners, whose nationalities weren’t immediately released. The death toll could rise further as 19 of those injured were in critical condition.
Another 150 people were injured, said Choi Seong-beom, the chief of Seoul’s Yongsan fire department, many of them seriously.
Yonhap news agency reported that around 50 people were in cardiac arrest, quoting the fire department. There were 19 foreigners among those who were killed in the stampede. They were from Iran, Uzbekistan, China and Norway.
Wildly unsafe in #Itaewon right now. #Halloween #Seoul #이태원 #서울 pic.twitter.com/CBIfXdplx9
— 민자넬⁷ 🐱 (@janelles_story) October 29, 2022
Itaewon is a popular destination for people celebrating Halloween in the South Korean capital, and the incident apparently occurred as the result of a crush resulting from the size of the crowd.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has ordered officials to dispatch first aid teams and for hospital beds to be immediately available.
On Sunday, South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered a thorough investigation saying that a deadly stampede at the Halloween event “should not have happened”.
“In the centre of Seoul, a tragedy and disaster occurred that should not have happened,” Yoon said in a national address, vowing to “thoroughly investigate” the incident and ensure it could never happen again.
