South Korea mourns over 150 killed in Halloween crowd crush, as probe is set

SEOUL South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol opened a memorial on Monday for the 154 people killed in a deadly crowd crush during Halloween celebrations in Seouls glitzy Itaewon neighbourhood, even as the authorities faced growing pressure amid accusations that an apparent lack of crowd control led to the disaster.

Mr Yoon and his wife led the public display of grief by laying white flowers at the huge altar set up in central Seoul for the victims, who were mostly young women.

Members of the public then descended on the black altar to pay their respects.

One man knelt down before the altar, covered in neat rows of white flowers, and wept.

At a makeshift memorial outside a subway station in Itaewon, where the deadly crowd crush occurred on Saturday, people also stopped to pray and lay flowers.

Calls for accountability grew on Monday, as potential lapses in crowd control and policing emerged.

As many as 100,000 people mostly in their teens and 20s, many wearing Halloween costumes poured into Itaewons small, winding streets, with eyewitnesses describing scant security and no crowd control.

Police said at a news briefing on Monday that they deployed 137 officers to the event, more than in previous years.

But local reports said most of those deployed were focused on drug use, rather than crowd control.

This was a disaster that could have been controlled or prevented, Professor Lee Young-ju, from the Department of Fire and Disaster at the University of Seoul, told broadcaster YTN. But this was not taken care of, with no one taking the responsibility in the first place.

Online, claims also spread that police this time were not actively managing the crowd, which allowed too many people to congregate around the subway station and in the alleyway at the epicentre of the disaster.

Ive lived in Itaewon for 10 years and experienced Halloween every year, but yesterday was by no means particularly crowded compared to previous years, Twitter user @isakchoi312 wrote. Ultimately, I think the cause of the disaster was crowd control. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol (centre, left) and his wife Kim Keon-hee offer flowers at a memorial altar for the victims of the crowd crush, in Seoul, on Oct 31, 2022. PHOTO: EPA-EFE On Sunday, the government defended the policing plan.

(The crush) was not a problem that could be solved by deploying police or firefighters in advance, Interior Minister Lee Sang-min told a briefing.

South Korea is typically strong on crowd control, with the countrys regular protest rallies often so heavily policed that officers can outnumber participants.

But protest organisers must, by law, report plans to the authorities in advance. There were no such requirements for those who flocked to the Itaewon Halloween events. SPH Brightcove Video A Halloween celebration turned into a tragedy in the Itaewon district of Seoul on Oct 29. A crowd surged into a narrow alley resulting in a crush that killed at least 153 people. More On This Topic Interactive: How the South Korea Halloween crowd crush unfolded We were just trying to stay alive: S'porean caught in Itaewon crowd crush Tens of thousands of partygoers were packed into the downhill alleyway, no more than 3m wide, with witnesses describing scenes of chaos, as people pushed and shoved to get through, with no police in sight to guide or control the crowd.

Witnesses described being trapped in a narrow, sloping alleyway and scrambling to get out of the suffocating crowd as people piled on top of one another.

Most of the 154 dead, including 26 foreigners, had been identified on Sunday, with the education ministry confirming on Monday that at least six young teenagers were among the victims.

But the toll could rise further, with at least 33 people in critical condition, officials said.

The country started a week of national mourning, with entertainment events and concerts cancelled and flags nationwide flying at half mast. AFP Remote video URL Follow us on YouTube: https://str.sg/ytsub Calls for accountability grew on Monday, as potential lapses in crowd control and … More On This Topic Itaewon crush a perfect storm that could have been prevented Some of the world's worst stampedes