At least 153 killed at Halloween festivities in Seoul’s Itaewon

Oct 31, 2022, 07:41 am

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Reporters wait at the alley near the Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon where the deadly crowd crush took place on Oct. 30, 2022./ Source: Yonhap

AsiaToday reporters Lee Seung-wook & Park Ah-ram

Halloween festivities in Seoul’s Itaewon became a nightmare late Saturday, killing and injuring more than 250 people.

The government designated Yongsan District, where Itaewon is located, as a special disaster zone. It formed an accident countermeasures headquarters along with the Seoul Metropolitan Government as well as the police and fire authorities to cope with the accident, and set up a joint memorial altar at Seoul Plaza and Itaewon Plaza.

Yongsan District said it would have a mourning period until the end of the year. The Itaewon tourism council has decided to close 100 business around Itaewon subway station until Monday.

As of 4:30 p.m. Sunday, a total of 153 people has been killed and 103 others injured, according to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. The deadliest crowd crush in Korea’s history happened Saturday night as a massive group of people surged into the narrow downhill alley with a width of about 4 meters near Hamilton Hotel and were instantly pushed down by others.

The casualties, most in their late teens and 20s, visited the entertainment district for late-night Halloween celebrations. The crush marked the worst tragedy in Korea since the 2014 sinking of the ferry Sewol that killed 304 people, mostly high school students.

As of 4:00 p.m. Sunday, 143 of those killed in the tragedy have been identified. The families of the missing flocked to the mortuary of Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital, where identified bodies were enshrined, to search for their families.

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