According to South Korean officials, at least 146 people were killed and 150 were injured after they were crushed by a massive crowd surging forward on a narrow street during Halloween festivities in the city of Seoul.
Following the stampede in Itaewon’s leisure area Saturday night, Choi Seong-beom, chief of Seoul’s Yongsan fire department, warned the dead toll might grow and that an undisclosed number of the injured were in serious condition.
He stated that 74 of the deceased had been taken to hospitals and that the remains of the other 46 people who had been left on the streets were being taken to a local gym so that workers could identify them.
The Hamilton Hotel, a popular gathering place for partying in Seoul, is where authorities claim fatalities erupted as a big crowd started pushing forward in the small alley.
All of Seoul’s available personnel, as well as more than 800 emergency personnel and police officers from throughout the country, were sent to the streets to provide first aid to the injured.
In a subsequent statement, the National Fire Agency stated that authorities were still attempting to estimate the precise number of emergency patients.
TV footage and images revealed a dense police presence, a line-up of ambulances, and emergency personnel escorting the injured on stretchers. People laying in the streets were spotted receiving CPR from both emergency personnel and pedestrians.
In one area, paramedics could be seen checking on a dozen or more patients who were immobile and covered in blue blankets.
In order to expedite the evacuation of the injured to hospitals around the city, police, who were blocking traffic in the vicinity, also reported that scores of victims were receiving CPR on Itaewon streets. The Seoul Metropolitan Government sent out emergency text messages advising locals to get back home immediately.
The crush allegedly happened as a result of several individuals rushing to an Itaewon pub after hearing that an unnamed celebrity had gone there, as per prior local media reports.
In a statement, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol urged officials to guarantee that people who were hurt received prompt medical attention and to assess the festival locations’ security.
He also gave the Health Ministry instructions to quickly dispatch disaster medical support teams and reserve beds at a nearby hospital to treat the injured.
Local media said around 100,000 people flocked to Itaewon streets for the Halloween festivities, which were the biggest since the start of the pandemic following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions in recent months.
