After 153 people were murdered at a Halloween celebration, the President of South Korea has declared a weeklong period of National mourning.
Early Sunday morning, South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-Yeol called for a week of national mourning. This came after at least 153 people, mostly in their teens and 20s, were killed and more than 100 were hurt when a crowd surge happened during Halloween celebrations in a Seoul nightlife district.
At least 20 foreigners, including people from the U.S., Norway, Australia, China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, and Iran, died in Seoul’s Itaewon nightclub district on Saturday night, according to South Korea’s Ministry of Interior and Safety. Reuters reports that several people are still unidentified.
Even though no one knows what caused the crush, reports say that tens of thousands of people crowded into the narrow streets of the Itaewon neighborhood for Halloween parties, which made the crowd panic.
When the crowd surge started in an alley near the Hamilton Hotel, some people were bleeding from their noses and mouths and were getting CPR, but others in Halloween costumes kept singing and dancing in the area because they didn’t know what was going on, witnesses told The Associated Press.
A report in the Hankyoreh newspaper in Seoul said that a survivor named Lee Chang-kyu said he saw about six men pushing other people before one or two started falling one by one at the start of the surge.
The streets were so full of people and slow-moving cars that emergency workers and ambulances couldn’t get to the alley, the newswire said.
NBC News said that the Itaewon Fire Station confirmed that at least 21 people had heart attacks during the surge.
The bodies were in 42 hospitals in Seoul and the nearby province of Gyeonggi.
On Sunday, President Yoon told government buildings and public offices to fly their flags at half-staff. He also gave a televised speech to the whole country.
He said that the government’s top goal would be to help the families of the victims.
“This is a real tragedy.” “The tragedy and disaster that didn’t have to happen happened in the middle of Seoul while people were celebrating Halloween,” Yoon was quoted as saying during his speech. “My heart is heavy, and I can’t hold back my sadness as a president who is responsible for the lives and safety of the people.”
But South Korea’s Minister of the Interior and Safety, Lee Sang-min, said that the crowd surge was “not a problem that could have been solved in advance.”
He said that a lot of police and security officers had been sent to the Gwanhwanmun area, where there had been “different disturbances and demonstrations” on Saturday. In Itaewon, he said, the crowd wasn’t too big, so only “normal” amounts of security were sent there.
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