Flowers of mourning, condolence gifts mark tragedy
Rescuers work at the scene of the Halloween stampede in Itaewon, Seoul, South Korea. (YONHAP / REUTERS)
White flowers of mourning and condolence gifts lie near the narrow alleyways of Itaewon, the popular nightlife district of Seoul, where scores of Halloween revelers died in a stampede on Saturday evening.
As of Tuesday morning, the death toll from the disaster was at least 156, according to South Korea's Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters. Most of the victims were in their 20s, with 12 of them as young as 10.A total of 151 people were injured in the stampede, 29 of them seriously.
The tragedy was the deadliest such incident in South Korea's history and the worst peacetime disaster the nation has seen since 2014, when 304 people died in a ferry accident.
Twenty-six foreigners from 14 countries were among the Itaewon victims, including five from Iran, four from China, four from Russia, two from the United States and two from Japan.
As many as 100,000 people dressed in costumes gathered in Itaewon to celebrate South Korea's first public Halloween event since the government lifted COVID-19 restrictions and social distancing rules. The accident happened at around 10:30 pm, when people were trapped and crushed as the crowd surged into a sloping alley less than 4 meters wide.
A dense crowd forms during the festivities. (LINDA@DABAKLUSA / REUTERS)
President Xi Jinping sent a message on Sunday to South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, expressing deep condolences over the victims' deaths and sincere sympathies to the injured and families of the bereaved.
Xi regretted that several Chinese nationals were killed or injured in the accident, and hoped that South Korea would spare no effort to treat the injured and deal with follow-up issues appropriately.
A week-long period of national mourning is being held in South Korea, with all state and government agencies flying flags at half-mast. The Chinese embassy in Seoul is among the diplomatic missions that have expressed condolences to victims of the disaster.
People across South Korea are paying their respects to the victims at mourning altars laden with white chrysanthemums. Yoon and first lady Kim Keon-hee visited an altar in Seoul Plaza in front of City Hall.
Chinese Ambassador to South Korea, Xing Haiming, also paying tribute to the victims at the altar in Seoul Plaza, said the stampede was an extremely unfortunate incident. China is working with the South Korean government in an all-out effort to assist Chinese citizens caught up in the tragedy, Xing added. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has warned Chinese citizens overseas to avoid crowded places and seek immediate help from local police and Chinese embassies in cases of emergency.
Yoon said the South Korean government should come up with a crowd control system for unorganized and spontaneous events.
Police investigate at the scene. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
Yonhap News Agency quoted deputy presidential spokesman Lee Jae-myoung as saying, "President Yoon said ahead of discussions that he feels an indescribable sadness as the president responsible for people's lives and safety when he thinks of the victims and their families.
"In particular, he once again expressed his grief that so many people at such a tender age were struck by tragedy before they even had a chance to pursue their dreams."
With an investigation into the cause of the accident ongoing, South Korea's ruling People Power Party pledged on Tuesday to push for a review of the disaster and the safety law to bolster supervision of unorganized events.
Yeom Gun-woong, professor in the police and fire administration department at U1 University in South Korea, told YTN news, " (For other type of events) the organizers could be punished under the law (for mismanagement), but it is difficult for someone to take the blame for Saturday's tragedy, as this was a spontaneous event, with no organizer."
The accident was caused by people in the crowds walking through an alley being pushed against each other, making it difficult to determine who was responsible, Yeom said.
Lee Young-ju, a professor in the fire and disaster department at the University of Seoul, said the Halloween gathering in Itaewon was a district event without a specific organizer, and as a result there was a lack of safety control.
"This disaster could have been controlled or prevented, but this was not taken care of, with no one taking responsibility in the first place," Lee said.
Those injured in the stampede are helped near the scene. (LEE JIN-MAN / AP)
Lack of awareness
Shin Dong-min, a professor in the emergency medical service department at Korea National University of Transportation, said Saturday's accident was a man-made disaster prompted by a lack of safety awareness.
"Itaewon vendors and government officials should have had more preparations about a massive crowd gathering," Shin said.
Witnesses said people were pushing from behind while walking in the crowds.
A Chinese student surnamed Zhao told Hong Kong television broadcaster TVB: "I could feel that people were pushing from the back, and the force became increasingly stronger. Some people were becoming more and more excited … and many were screaming."
To avoid the crowd, Zhao, who had dinner with his friends at around 8pm, went to an upstairs bar before the tragedy occurred.
He said he only saw police arriving after the accident happened, with the emergency team taking 30 minutes to get to the scene.
Medical staff attend to a person on a stretcher in the popular nightlife district of Itaewon in Seoul on Oct 30, 2022. (JUNG YEON-JE / AFP)
Another Chinese student, using the nickname Gu Lu Lu Xiao Zhu, posted on social media that she was in the middle of the crowd just before the accident happened.
"It was difficult to stand on my own, and I could barely breathe," she said in the post. As she walked along a wall and tried to get away, people around her began to fall down.
After being escorted to a main road, she saw people lying on the ground, as a stream of ambulances arrived at the scene.
"I will never go to Itaewon again," she said.
Although the Yoon administration quickly announced measures such as designating a special emergency area around Itaewon, the week of national mourning, and setting up special altars, Ha Kyooman, a representative for South Korea at the International Association of Emergency Managers, said government officials did not claim immediate responsibility for a late emergency response.
Ha said policymakers have not realized the importance of contingency planning for special events such as Halloween gatherings in Itaewon.
A woman prays for victims of the disaster. (AHN YOUNG-JOON / AP)
The cause of the stampede should be attributed to "irresponsibility by police in the region", Ha said.
"The regional police, as emergency responders, did not pay attention to monitoring mass gatherings around Itaewon during Halloween festivities," Ha added.
The investigation team should consist of all stakeholders, from police, firefighters and medical staff members, to vendors in Itaewon, survivors and victims' families, Ha said.
"Multiple perspectives will be fairly considered to determine the main cause of the stampede."
Yoon Hee-keun, head of the National Police Agency, made a public apology for the fatal crush during a news conference on Tuesday.
The police chief said officers received numerous reports about the crowd numbers, but the response was insufficient.
According to information released at the news conference, police began receiving calls related to Halloween crowds gathering in Itaewon after 6 pm on Saturday. Just an hour before the accident, more than 100 reports were received calling for police control in view of the huge crowds in the area, but no specific measures were taken.
Yoon Hee-keun said the police will carry out a thorough investigation to determine the cause of the incident and responsibility.
Shoes collected from the scene of a deadly accident following Saturday night's Halloween festivities, are placed at a temporary lost and found center at a gym in Seoul, South Korea, Nov 1, 2022. (LEE JIN-MAN / AP)
Health support
A total of 137 police officers were deployed in Itaewon for Halloween festivities.
In contrast, at rallies staged by labor unions and supporters of President Yoon, which drew tens of thousands in Gwanghwamun, central Seoul, on Saturday, up to 4,000 police were deployed, according to Reuters.
The South Korean authorities are working to provide mental health support for those who may have experienced psychological trauma as a result of the stampede.
South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said bereaved families, those injured in the disaster, and others affected by it will be entitled to government-organized mental treatment programs.
The Korean Neuro Psychiatric Association, or KNPA, said in a statement that people should stop spreading videos and pictures of the accident scene.
"We recommended that they refrain from watching excessively and repeatedly videos or news reports about the accident, because this can have a negative impact on their health," the KNPA said.
"There is a need for restraint in hate speech," it added, noting that spreading unconfirmed facts can damage the reputation of the victims and cause social conflict.
A woman places a flower to pay tribute to victims of a deadly accident following Saturday night's Halloween festivities on the street near the scene in Seoul, South Korea, Nov 1, 2022. (AHN YOUNG-JOON / AP)
The Korean Society for Traumatic Stress Studies said people should refrain from leveling criticism, as this will leave a deeper trauma in the minds of the survivors and bereaved families.
"Please understand the great pain that the survivors and the bereaved families are undergoing, both physically and mentally," the society said.
Social media and online portal operators asked users to refrain from uploading content that may reveal the victims' identities, or to share unconfirmed information.
The Itaewon tragedy raised a global alert over crowd management.
In Indonesia, more than 170 people were killed in a stampede at a soccer match in East Java province on Oct 1.
In 2015, more than 2,000 pilgrims died in a stampede in Saudi Arabia during the annual hajj pilgrimage in Mecca.
Two years earlier, 115 people died in a stampede on a bridge near the Ratangarh Mata Temple in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh during the Hindu festival of Navratri.
Ha, from the International Association of Emergency Managers, said, "The severity of the Itaewon accident is certainly related to a high degree to the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak."
Noting the prevalence of mental stress among the majority of South Koreans since the pandemic emerged in the country at the start of 2020, Ha said many young people wanted to relieve their anxiety by taking part in Halloween festivities in Itaewon.
"As long as Omicron sub-variants of COVID-19 continue to mutate, a second or third such accident may happen anywhere," Ha said.
In addition to government supervision, Ha said people need to be aware of potential danger at mass gatherings, and they should try to avoid areas where accidents are likely to happen.
Yoon, the South Korean president, will hold a meeting between government officials and the public next week to discuss ways to improve safety measures and analyze the cause of the Itaewon tragedy.
kelly@chinadailyapac.com