No less than 146 killed in stampede at Halloween occasion in South Korea

SEOUL, Oct 30 (Reuters) – (Observe that paragraph 11 accommodates graphic language)

No less than 146 folks have been killed in a crush when an enormous crowd celebrating Halloween surged into an alley in an evening life space of the South Korean capital Seoul on Saturday night time, emergency officers mentioned.

An additional 150 folks have been injured within the melee in Seoul’s Itaewon district, Choi Sung-beom, head of the Yongsan Hearth Station, mentioned in a briefing on the scene.

Most of the injured have been in severe situation and receiving emergency therapy, the officers mentioned.

It was the primary Halloween occasion in Seoul in three years after the nation lifted COVID restrictions and social distancing. Most of the party-goers have been carrying masks and Halloween costumes.

Some witnesses described the gang changing into more and more unruly and agitated because the night deepened. The incident came about at about 10:20 p.m. (1320 GMT).

“A lot of folks fell throughout a Halloween pageant, and we’ve got numerous casualties,” Choi mentioned. A lot of these killed have been close to a nightclub.

Most of the victims have been girls of their twenties, Choi mentioned.

Witnesses described chaotic scenes moments earlier than the stampede, with the police readily available in anticipation of the Halloween occasion at instances having bother sustaining management of the crowds.

Moon Ju-young, 21, mentioned there have been clear indicators of bother within the alleys earlier than the incident.

“It was a minimum of greater than 10 instances crowded than normal,” he instructed Reuters.

Social media footage confirmed a whole lot of individuals packed within the slender, sloped alley crushed and motionless as emergency officers and police tried to drag them to free.

One lady heard on a social media put up cries out in English: “Oh my God, oh my God, Jesus fucking Christ.”

Choi, the Yongsan district fireplace chief, mentioned all of the deaths have been probably from the crush within the single slender alley.

Different footage confirmed chaotic scenes of fireside officers and residents treating dozens of people that gave the impression to be unconscious.

An unnamed lady who mentioned she was the mom of a survivor mentioned her daughter and others have been trapped for greater than an hour earlier than being pulled from the crush of individuals within the alley.

A Reuters witness mentioned a make-shift morgue was arrange in a constructing adjoining to the scene. About 4 dozen our bodies have been carried out in a while wheeled stretchers and moved to a authorities facility to determine the victims, in keeping with the witness.

The Itaewon district is fashionable with younger South Koreans and expatriates alike, its dozens of bars and eating places packed on Saturday for Halloween after companies had suffered a pointy decline over three years of the pandemic.

“You’ll see huge crowds at Christmas and fireworks…however this was a number of ten-folds larger than any of that,” Park Jung-hoon, 21, instructed Reuters from the scene.

Foreigners have been amongst these transferred to close by hospitals.

“The realm continues to be chaotic so we’re nonetheless making an attempt to determine the precise variety of folks injured,” mentioned Moon Hyun-joo, an official on the Nationwide Hearth Company.

With the easing of the COVID pandemic, curfews on bars and eating places and a restrict of 10 folks for personal gatherings have been lifted in April. An outside masks mandate was dropped in Might.

Authorities mentioned they have been investigating the precise reason for the incident. President Yoon Suk-yeol presided over an emergency assembly with senior aides.

Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi, Choonsik Yoo Daewoung Kim, Hong-ji Kim, Writing by Jack Kim, Modifying by Angus MacSwan

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.