More than 100 people have died in a stampede between huge Halloween crowds in a popular nightlife area of the South Korean capital, officials say. The death toll jumped from 59 to 120 in the last hour, with local media reporting another 100 injured. Videos from Seoul’s Itaewon district show body bags on the streets, paramedics performing CPR and rescuers trying to pull out people trapped under others. It is not known what caused the stampede.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called an emergency meeting. Meanwhile, Choi Seong-beom, chief of Seoul’s Yongsan Fire Department, told the AP that the bodies of 13 of the dead had been sent to a hospital, while another 46 remained on the streets. Crowded area ‘didn’t feel safe’
There were reportedly 100,000 crowds in the area celebrating the first outdoor mask-free Halloween event since the pandemic. Social media reports posted earlier in the evening show some people commenting that the Itaewon area was so crowded that it did not feel safe.
Lots of medical staff, lots of ambulances, taking the bodies away one by one. Mr Lee said there were thousands in the crowd and several bodies covered in blue sheets, along with “a ton of police”. “A lot of young people gathered here tonight. A lot of people came to the party and the club in costumes and I saw a lot of people upset and sad and there are chaotic scenes,” Mr Lee said.
Photos and videos show a number of rescuers and civilians tending to unconscious people on the streets. In one video, multiple responders appear to perform CPR on people on a narrow road in the district. In another instance, rescue workers are trying to pull people out of what appears to be a pile of human bodies after a crowd surge. An emergency broadcast was sent to every cell phone in Yongsan District urging citizens to return home as soon as possible due to an “emergency accident at the Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon.”
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