At Least 146 People Dead in Itaewon Halloween Stampede Disaster in Seoul
This is absolutely horrible what happened last night in the Itaewon neighborhood of Seoul:
At least 146 people died and more than 150 were injured in a crowd crush in Itaewon, Yongsan-gu, central Seoul, according to fire authorities at 4:00 a.m. on Sunday. The fire department began to receive reports of patients having difficulty breathing at 10:22 p.m. on Saturday.
Of the 146 people who died, 101 were transferred to the hospital. The remaining 45 bodies were kept on site and later moved to a nearby multi-purpose indoor gymnasium. Identifying the deceased is expected to take some time, according to fire officials. Most of the dead were in their 20s. Officials expect that the number of casualties will continue to rise throughout the day.
Choi Eul-cheon, head of the Yongsan Police’s criminal division, said, “No drug-related reports have been confirmed” in response to a question about whether drugs were involved in the incident.
Korea Herald
You can read more at the link, but rumors being spread was that it was caused by reports that candy filled with drugs was being handed out to people and that a celebrity was at a bar that caused a large amount of people to surge into the alley next to the Hamilton Hotel. There was obviously something going on in that alley to cause so many people to surge into that direction at once. I am sure in the coming days we will find out what happened. Odds are there was plenty of USFK servicemembers at Itaewon last night. No word yet of any of the casualties were US military personnel.
On Twitter there is a lot of videos showing what happened during the stampede and the aftermath. Looking at the videos it appears that most of the victims are young women, which would make sense that they would be crushed in a crowd more easily than larger males. Warning the videos below the fold are graphic.
Here is a video of a man stuck in the crowd surge surrounded by screaming women:
Is this video you can see how a wave of people being pushed backwards into others:
Here is a man escaping the crowd surge by climbing up the side of a building:
This video shows first responders trying to pull people out of the alleyway, but are having a hard time due to how crushed they are together:
Here is another view of the first responders trying to pull the tightly packed people out of the alley:
Here is a video of the aftermath:
Here is a video of party goers helping those who are down by providing CPR:
Oddly across the street from the Hamilton this group was partying while people were dying:
On the political front President Yoon wisely immediately called together an emergency meeting last night. Even though this meeting obviously doesn’t do anything to help the situation, it shows he is learning from the mistake of prior President Park Geun-hye who repeatedly attacked by political opponents for not immediately holding an emergency meeting after the Sewol ferry boat disaster. The mayor of Seoul is also on his way back from a trip to Europe to respond to this disaster.
I am sure we will learn more in the coming days and hopefully the death toll doesn’t grow any more, but what a tragic disaster. It is going to be hard to ever go to Itaewon again and not think about this tragedy. Condolences to everyone who lost friends and family from this tragic incident.
Not good enough is it? He had three days to do something to control the crowd, as the party had started at least two days prior with the crowds building up each day. Every freaking man-made huge disaster in Korea, they were under the Conservative governments who tend to relax the safety laws in the name of the free market. The Seongsu bridge collapse in 1994 – conservative party rule. The Sampoong department collapse in 1995 – conservative party rule. The Sewol sinking in 2014 – conservative party rule. The 2022 Itaewon mass deaths – once again the conservative party rule. And where’s the conservative party Seoul Mayor Oh Se Hoon? This government is just a complete disaster after disaster, their history is proven.
President Yoon just lost the mandate of heaven. In Korean politics even the most random tragedies that have zero government involvement end up being used as political crowbars to dislodge the ruling administration… Unless the ruling administration is pro North communists and then it’s obviously the fault of the conservatives regardless.
Just look at commenter Korean Man to see an authentic Jeolla-Do communist. Chun Doo Hwan should have sent in more tanks.
That is a narrow alley abutting the western wall of the Hamilton Hotel with a 24 hour E-mart at the south west end and some bars at the north west end.
The alley is all brick and closed back doors of the bars.
No exits at all, except the north and south ends.
The north entrance is maybe 6 feet wider than the south end, the crowd entering at the north end were funnelled into the narrowing alley.
The Kakao camera car barely fit between the walls.
Tragic.
Man-made disasters are nearly annual events in Korea happening under all governments. Almost like having a country of 50 million people is going to result in some incidents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_man-made_disasters_in_South_Korea
Why not blame the 192 deaths of the Daegu subway fire or the 129 deaths of the Air China Flight 129 crash on Kim Dae-jung? Why not blame the 134 deaths in various fires between 2017 and 2021 on Moon Jae-in. All those serial killing between 2003 and 2008… clearly Roh Moo-hyun‘s fault.
President Yoon is done. He won’t make the end of the year. Dismal approval ratings and mass protests calling for his resignation were one thing, but this will be the straw to break the camel’s back.
…and I even like the guy, compared to my wife
So very sad.
Well, GrayBlack, I know you want to desperately defend an incompetent US lackey that is working for the US interests, but come on! Aren’t you going overboard with accusations of red commies needing to be massacred by tanks?
Now let’s think about this calmly and reasonably, shall we?
In 2017, over 200,000 people attended the Itaewon Halloween festival. At that time, there were 800 to 1000 police officers who were dispatched to oversee the event. Similar numbers in 2018, and 2019 before the Covid. There were no mass deaths like that of yesterday. This is normal under a government administration that’s even half responsible.
Come 2022, how many police were dispatched to the area? Only 200 to oversee a mass event. What was the excuse? The minister in charge of public safety – the Minister of Public Administration and Security, appointed by the conservative government led by the conservative President Yoon Suck Your, in yesterday’s press conference replied: “we did not see the need to dispatch more cops to the area because we did not see anything out of the ordinary”.
See this is the problem with the conservative Korean governments. They don’t view Koreans (other than their rich business partners) as humans worth protecting, just flies that can be sacrificed at any time for the good of the ruling party. Expecting them to protect Korean jobs and Korean interests, is foolish when they can’t even provide basic public safety. They care more about lining their own pockets, and currying favors from Americans than about South Koreans.
In the middle of comments about the tragic deaths in Itaewon, Korean Man is compelled to spew even more vile Beijing agitprop.
Shame on his parents.
May the souls of the victims rest in peace and condolences to the families who lost their loved ones.
Not that I’m a fan of Pres Yoon, but if crowd control measures were to be in place before the tragic weekend, the responsibility would have fallen to the Yongsan-gu government, the Seoul Metropolitan Police and Seoul Metropolitan City Hall, not the Presidential Office. Whether they knew about this and did nothing or didn’t expect this to happen or weren’t interested altogether will probably come up in an inquiry which will most probably happen.
And as for comparison with Sewol, the Sewol became a tragedy, because on top of the incompetence by the shipping company and the crew, the Korean Coast Guard totally bungled the SAR response, resulting in needless loss of life.
The most glaringly symbol of that bungled response is the KCG patrol boat captain who looked on as the ship was on its side, decided to sail forward to the bridge, rescued the bridge crew and left the scene.
The response to the Itaewon tragedy was prompt, however considering the situation, there wasn’t probably anything more the rescue work can do on top of the actions they did on that tragic night.
IMO, comparisons to Sewol and former Pres. Park doesn’t apply here.