President Yoon Suk-yeol of South Korea has declared a period of national mourning following the fatal Halloween crush that happened in Seoul on Saturday night.
“This is truly tragic,” Yoon said in a statement on Sunday, hours after some 151 people were confirmed killed in a crowd stampede in Seoul’s Itaewon district.
“The government will designate the period from today until the accident is brought under control as a period of national mourning,” he said.
The tragedy happened shortly after 10 pm local (13:00GMT) when a huge crowd thronged a narrow alley near the Hamilton Hotel in Seoul.
The Yonhap news agency has described the disaster as the deadliest incident of its kind in South Korean history.
The majority of the victims, according to fire officials, were women and young adults in their 20s, and 19 of them were foreigners from Iran, Uzbekistan, China, and Norway.
82 additional people suffered injuries, and 19 of them were bad.
Cause Of Crush Still Unknown
Although some local media said that the incident occurred when a large crowd of people rushed to a nearby bar on hearing that an unnamed celebrity had visited there, the cause of the stampede has not yet been known, Al Jazeera reports.
It occurred at Seoul's first Halloween celebration in three years after COVID-19 restrictions and social distancing was relaxed.
According to reports, tens of thousands of partygoers dressed in Halloween masks and costumes had traveled to Itaewon for the occasion.
Witnesses reported trying to escape the suffocating crowd in the downhill alley as people ended up stacking on top of one another.
“People kept pushing down into a downhill club alley, resulting in other people screaming and falling like dominos,” one unidentified witness was quoted as saying by the Yonhap news agency.
“I thought I would be crushed to death too as people kept pushing without realizing people were falling at the start of the stampede.”
“There were so many people just being pushed around and I got caught in the crowd and I couldn’t get out at first too,” 30-year-old Jeon Ga-Eul told the AFP news agency. “I felt like an accident was bound to happen.”
A survivor, Babette Vanderhaeghen who is a Belgian resident in Seoul, told the Korea Joong Ang Daily newspaper that she was able to escape the crush. “We thought we were going to die because there were far too many people,” she said.
Another survivor blamed bar and club owners for the high death toll, saying that they prevented people from fleeing the crowd.
“It looks like the casualties were more severe as people attempted to escape to nearby stores but were kicked out back to the street because business hours were over,” the survivor who asked not to be named told Yonhap.
According to Al Jazeera, videos and pictures from the immediate aftermath showed hysterical scenes of firefighters and citizens tending to dozens of victims who appeared to be unconscious.
Later in the evening, footage showed emergency workers in orange vests moving even more victims onto stretchers and into ambulances while dozens more bodies were sprawled out on the pavement and covered with bed linens.
355 people have been reported missing, following the disaster, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Administration, which had earlier sent out emergency text messages asking those in Itaewon to go back home.
According to the report, 60 employees have been placed in roughly 50 hospitals to help the victims' relatives who have lost a loved one.
The Korea Herald also described frantic scenes outside the Soonchunhyang University hospital, less than a mile from Itaewon, where family members were searching for missing loved ones.
"The US Stands With The Republic Of Korea."
US President Joe Biden has sent a message of condolence to the bereaved families, and also wished those injured a speedy recovery.
“Jill and I send our deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones in Seoul. We grieve with the people of the Republic of Korea and send our best wishes for a quick recovery to all those who were injured,” the message reads.
“The Alliance between our two countries has never been more vibrant or more vital – and the ties between our people are stronger than ever.
“The United States stands with the Republic of Korea during this tragic time.”
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