South Koreans demand answers to ‘preventable’ Halloween crush that killed at least 154
- Calls are growing for accountability as authorities face accusations that lax crowd control was to blame for the horrific Halloween stampede
- A safety expert says the ‘human-caused disaster’ tragedy could have been averted on a night where some 100,000 revellers were expected in Itaewon
Authorities have launched an investigation to determine what caused the crowd to surge into the downhill alley in Itaewon, amid accusations of lax police crowd control on a night with some 100,000 revellers expected to converge in the hip district for Halloween.
Son Won-bae, a fire service administration professor at Chodang University, said authorities in charge of securing the safety of people’s lives had failed to set up preventive measures on grounds that Halloween festivities at nightclubs and bars were not covered by laws and regulations that ensure public safety at art performances and sports events.
“I agree that this is a human-caused disaster that could have been prevented,” he told This Week in Asia, adding the lack of safety measures among authorities and a low public awareness of the danger of crowd crushes made a fatal combination.
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Seoul stampede: Eyewitnesses recount moments leading up to the deadly Halloween crush
Witnesses said people fell on each other “like dominoes” in a chaotic crush so intense that clothes were ripped off, with some describing nightmarish scenes of people performing CPR on the dying and carrying limp bodies to ambulances, as dance music blasted from neon-lit clubs.