At least 146 people were killed and 150 others injured in a stampede during Halloween festivities in Seoul, officials said in one of South Korea’s biggest disasters that is likely to raise serious questions about public safety standards.
The huge death toll is being tallied after people were crushed by a large advancing crowd in a narrow alley in Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhoods, a major entertainment and nightlife district in the capital.
Australian Labor Relations Minister Tony Burke told Weekend Today that the federal government currently does not know whether any Australian citizens have been included in the rising death toll.
Emergency services carry injured people after a stampede in Seoul, South Korea. (Getty)
“It is chilling to see this story as it has come across. Our embassy officials are highly professional and will work and make contact,” Burke told Weekend Today.
“The number of deaths that we’re looking at right now seems pretty inevitable that it’s likely to go up.”
Choi Seong-beom, chief of Seoul’s Yongsan Fire Department, said the death toll could rise and an unspecified number of the injured were in critical condition after the stampede in Itaewon on Saturday night .
He said the bodies were being sent to hospitals or a gym, where grieving relatives could identify them. He said earlier that most of the dead and injured are in their 20s.
CNN Senior International Correspondent Will Ripley told Weekend Today that more than 1,700 response personnel from across the country were deployed, including about 520 firefighters, 1,100 police and 70 government workers.
“We have been here for several hours and the death toll has tripled,” he said from Seoul.
Ripley said many victims were in disguise at the time, making it difficult to identify people.
“The fact that many of the victims were in disguise adds another heartbreaking layer to all of this,” he said.
At least 146 people died during the incident. (Getty)
“It’s making it difficult for these people to be investigated. You have a lot of families concerned about young people. Most of them late teens, early 20s, according to witnesses, who were here.”
The National Fire Agency said in a statement that all available emergency workers in Seoul have been mobilized.
An estimated 100,000 people gathered in Itaewon, near a former US military headquarters in an area known for trendy bars, nightclubs and restaurants, for Halloween parties in the air largest free in the country since the pandemic began.
The South Korean government eased COVID-19 restrictions in recent months.
One survivor said many people fell and crashed into each other “like dominoes” after being pushed by others in a narrow downhill alley near Itaewon’s Hamilton Hotel.
The survivor, surnamed Kim, said some people shouted “Help me!” and others were short of breath.
Kim described being trampled by other people for about an hour and a half before being rescued, according to the Hankyoreh newspaper in Seoul.
Another survivor, named Lee Chang-kyu, said he saw about five or six men start pushing each other before one or two began to fall one by one at the start of the stampede, according to the newspaper .
The stampede is the biggest disaster since 304 people, mostly high school students, died in a sinking ferry in April 2014.
Rescue workers carry injured people on the street near the scene in Seoul, South Korea, early Sunday, Oct. 30, 2022. South Korean officials said about 50 people were in cardiac arrest and were they feared death after being crushed by a large pushing crowd. forward in a narrow street during the Halloween festivities in the capital Seoul. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) (AP)
The sinking exposed lax safety standards and regulatory failures, with excessive and poorly secured cargo and a crew poorly trained for emergency situations being blamed in part.
Saturday’s stampede is likely to draw public criticism of government officials for what they have done to improve public safety standards since the ferry disaster.
Television footage and photographs showed ambulances lined up in the streets amid a heavy police presence and emergency workers carrying the injured on stretchers.
Emergency workers and pedestrians were also seen performing CPR on people lying in the street. In one section, paramedics were seen checking the condition of a dozen or more people who were motionless under blue blankets.
In an interview with YTN news channel, Hwang Min-hyeok, one of the visitors to Itaewon, said it was shocking to see rows of bodies lying in the alley near the Hamilton Hotel.
Ambulances and rescue workers arrive on the street near the scene in Seoul, South Korea, early Sunday, Oct. 30, 2022. South Korean officials said about 50 people were in cardiac arrest and were they feared death after being crushed by a large pushing crowd. forward in a narrow street during the Halloween festivities in the capital Seoul. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) (AP)
He said emergency workers were initially overwhelmed, leaving pedestrians struggling to administer CPR to the injured lying in the street.
People were crying next to the bodies, he said.
Another survivor in his 20s said he avoided being run over when he luckily walked into a bar whose door was open in the alley, Yonhap news agency reported.
A woman in her 20s surnamed Park told Yonhap that she and others were on the side of the alley while others were stuck in the middle.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol issued a statement asking officials to ensure prompt treatment for the injured and review the security of the party venues.
He also ordered the Ministry of Health to quickly deploy disaster medical assistance teams and secure beds in nearby hospitals to treat the injured.
Authorities have not yet provided exact details about the cause of the incident. (Getty)
The Seoul Metropolitan Government issued emergency text messages urging people in the area to return home quickly.
There have been some deadly stampedes in South Korea in the past.
In 2005, 11 people were killed and around 60 injured in a stampede at a pop concert in the southern city of Sangju.
In 1992, a teenage girl died and dozens of others were injured during a stampede at a concert in Seoul by the American pop group New Kids on the Block.