S. Korea in shock, grief as 151 die in Halloween crowd surge

Concerned relatives raced to hospitals in search of their loved ones Sunday as South Korea mourned the deaths of at least 151 people, mostly in their teens and 20s, who got trapped and crushed after a huge Halloween party crowd surged into a narrow alley in a nightlife district in Seoul.
Witnesses said the crowd surge in the Itaewon area on Saturday night caused “a hell-like” chaos as people fell on each other “like dominos.” 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 non-profit organization 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.
The crowd surge is the country’s worst disaster in years. Tens of thousands of people were believed to have gathered in Itaewon for Halloween festivities. Witnesses said the streets were so densely clogged with people and slow-moving vehicles that it was practically impossible for emergency workers and ambulances to reach the alley near Hamilton Hotel swiftly.
There were concerns the death toll could grow as 24 people among the 104 being treated for injuries were in critical condition, according to Seoul City’s disaster headquarters.
The city government said more than 2,600 people have called or visited a nearby city office as of Saturday afternoon, reporting missing relatives and asking officials to confirm whether they were among those injured or dead after the crush.
The dead included 19 foreigners, said Choi Seong-beom, chief of Seoul’s Yongsan fire department, whose jurisdiction includes Itaewon. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry did not confirm the nationalities of those victims, but it said it alerted those countries’ embassies in Seoul. The Chinese state news agency Xinhua said at least three Chinese nationals were killed.