Rescue workers and firefighters try to help injured people near the scene of a crowd surge in Seoul, South Korea Photo / Lee Jin-man, AP
Rescue workers and firefighters try to help injured people near the scene of a crowd surge in Seoul, South Korea Photo / Lee Jin-man, AP
As he watched a dozen or more unconscious partygoers carried out from a narrow backstreet packed with youngsters dressed like movie characters, an overwhelmed Ken Fallas couldn’t process what was happening.
Fallas, a Costa Rican architect who has worked in Seoul for the past eight years, said Saturday’s Halloween festivities at the city’s nightlife district of Itaewon were a long-awaited occasion to hang out with fellow expats following years of Covid-19 restrictions
Instead, the 32-year-old became a front-row witness to one of the most horrific disasters South Korea has seen.
The smartphone video Fallas took following the deadly crowd surge shows groups of Halloween revelers carrying out their unconscious peers, one after another, from an alley near Hamilton Hotel, passing by throngs of people dressed in capes and Miyazaki movie costumes. Some people are seen administrating CPR to injured people on the pavement while others shout for help above blaring dance music.
A man bows to pay tribute for victims near the scene of a deadly accident in Seoul. Photo / Ahn Young-joon, AP
Fallas said police and emergency workers were constantly pleading with people to step up if they knew how to give CPR because they were overwhelmed by the large number of the injured laid out on the street.
“I saw a lot of [young] people laughing, but I don’t think they were [really] laughing because, you know, what’s funny?” Fallas said. “They were laughing because they were too scared. Because to be in front of a thing like that is not easy. Not everyone knows how to process that.”
Fallas said he and his friends were trapped among the huge throngs of people pushing toward the alley when police officers began breaking the lines from behind to approach the injured. He said people near his group didn’t initially know what was happening.
“We were unable to move back. The music was loud. Nobody knew what was happening. People were still partying with the emergency happening in front of us,” he said. “We were like, ‘What’s going on from here, where we can go?’ There was no exit.”
At least one Australian is among the dead. The Australian Embassy in Seoul said it had been notified of the death on Sunday. Consular officials are providing assistance to the deceased’s family in Australia, and to other Australians who attended the event, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT) said.
Nathan Taverniti, an Australian who survived the incident, spoke to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency and identified himself as a friend of the victim, a 23-year-old woman.
“I just can’t believe it. I was in the front of where it happened,” Taverniti said while wiping away tears in front of Soonchunhyang University Hospital, where the bodies of some victims were located.
“All I could see was a wall of people.”
Rescue workers try to carry victims on the street near the scene, in Seoul after at least 120 people were killed. Photo / Lee Jin-man, AP
He said it had been “impossible” to save his friend.
“People need to know how bad it was and how little help there was.”
He said he had spent Sunday desperately trying to find her body.
“I don’t know where she is,” he said.
“I can’t find any info ... the consulate doesn’t know where she is.”
Taverniti spoke further in a video posted on TikTok, condemning the slow response from South Korean authorities. He claimed it took half an hour for police to attend the scene, and even longer for other emergency services to arrive.
Concerned relatives raced to hospitals in search of their loved ones as South Korea mourned the deaths of more than 150 people, mostly in their 20s and 30s, who got trapped and crushed after the huge Halloween party crowd surged into a narrow alley in a nightlife district in Seoul.
Witnesses said the crowd surge Saturday night in the Itaewon area caused “a hell-like” chaos as people fell on each other “like dominoes”. Some people were bleeding from their noses and mouths while being given CPR, witnesses said, while others clad in Halloween costumes continued to sing and dance nearby, possibly without knowing the severity of the situation.
“I still can’t believe what has happened. It was like a hell,” said Kim Mi Sung, an official at a nonprofit organisation that promotes tourism in Itaewon.
Kim said she performed CPR on 10 people who were unconscious and nine of them were declared dead on the spot. Kim said the 10 were mostly women wearing witch outfits and other Halloween costumes.
Ambulances and rescue workers arriving at the street near the scene on a narrow street during Halloween festivities in the capital Seoul. Photo / Lee Jin-man, AP
As of Sunday evening, officials put the death toll at 153 and the number of injured people at 133. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety said the death count could further rise as 37 of the injured people were in serious condition.
Ninety-seven of the dead were women and 56 were men. More than 80 per cent of the dead are in their 20s and 30s, but at least four were teenagers. At least 20 of the dead are foreigners from China, Russia, Iran and elsewhere. There is one American among the dead, the Interior Ministry said in a release.
An estimated 100,000 people had gathered in Itaewon for the country’s biggest outdoor Halloween festivities since the pandemic began. The South Korean government had eased Covid-19 restrictions in recent months.
The bodies of the dead were being kept at 42 hospitals in Seoul and nearby Gyeonggi province, according to Seoul City, which said it will instruct crematories to burn more bodies per day as part of plans to support funeral proceedings.
Around 100 businesses in the Hamilton Hotel area have agreed to shut down their shops through Monday to reduce the number of partygoers who would come to the streets through Halloween day.
While Halloween isn’t a traditional holiday in South Korea — where children rarely go trick-or-treating — it’s still a major attraction for young adults, and costume parties at bars and clubs have become hugely popular in recent years.
Itaewon, near where the former headquarters of US military forces in South Korea operated for decades before moving out of the capital in 2018, is an expat-friendly district known for its trendy bars, clubs and restaurants. It’s the city’s marquee Halloween destination.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared a one-week national mourning period on Sunday and ordered flags at government buildings and public offices to fly at half-staff. During a televised speech, Yoon said supporting the families of the victims, including their funeral preparations, and the treatment of the injured would be a top priority for his government.
He also called for officials to thoroughly investigate the cause of the accident and review the safety of other large cultural and entertainment events to ensure they proceed safely.
