When the small alleys of Seoul’s famed Itaewon nightlife district got clogged with suffocating crowds, eyewitnesses reported scenes of total mayhem.
Freelance journalist Raphael Rashid told that there were “tens of thousands of people, the most I’ve ever seen. “There were so many people that we were crushed on the sidewalk.”
After two years of Covid restrictions in South Korea, thousands of teenagers and adults in their twenties donned Halloween costumes and gathered on Itaewon, ecstatic to finally be able to party.
A witness compared the accident to a war film after viewing video footage of the disaster, which depicted real-life terror unfolding. Over 150 people were killed, and over 80 were injured.
The clips depicted crowds so densely packed that just a handful was able to escape to safety; anxious witnesses assisting paramedics with CPR on casualties; and a lengthy line of victims in bodybags on the street.
A sharply sloped passageway supposedly became a death trap when the mob surged forward, causing those in the front to fall and be trampled by those in the back.
Some video footage on Twitter depicts rescuers desperately pulling on individuals to remove them from a dense crowd.
“A short person like me couldn’t even breathe,” a female eyewitness told the AFP news agency, as cited in an article. She explained that she had survived because she was on the side of the alley, whereas “those in the center suffered the most.”
Raphael Rashid stated that “no one knew what was going on” and that some cops were “standing atop their police cars anxiously urging people to evacuate the area as soon as possible.”
Dr. Lee Beom-suk, a medic at the incident, told local station YTN that he attempted CPR on a few patients, but “the number skyrocketed shortly after, outnumbering first responders at the scene.” “Numerous witnesses assisted us with CPR.
He stated, “the faces of so many victims were pale.” I was unable to detect their pulse or respiration, and many of them had bloody noses.
According to Park Jung-hoon, 21, the situation was “totally out of hand.”
Moon Ju-young, also 21 years old, commented, “There were just too many people and it was very crowded.”
“I am aware that the police and rescue personnel are working diligently, but I believe there was a lack of planning.”
Lee Su-mi, a 53-year-old Itaewon resident, told Reuters that “the so-called ‘Covid generation’ could finally celebrate Halloween as their first holiday.
No one could have predicted that the festival would turn into a disaster.
