Seoul stampede – latest: Death toll may rise after 153 killed in Halloween crowd crush

Halloween parties and other events due to take place this weekend have been cancelled out of respect for those who died in the disaster in Itaewon and to counter the possibility of any further tragedies occurring, the Korea Times reports.

Many entertainment programs on television have also been cancelled as a mark of respect or have been replaced by breaking news updates about the accident, the paper reported.

Seoul’s mayor has vowed to make sure that there are no inconveniences with the funeral procedures for those killed in the disaster.

“I pray for the souls of the deceased who have passed away. I have no words to say to the deceased and the injured,” Oh Se-hoon told reporters at Incheon International Airport, according to the Yonhap news agency.

“Handling the aftermath is very important. I will make sure there will be no inconveniences with the funeral procedures and do my best so that those who’ve been injured won’t experience any difficulties in the treatment and recovery,” he said.

One father who came to collect his daughter’s body at a funeral home in Seoul, after receiving a call at 1am from authorities, described the news as coming “like a bolt from the blue sky”.

Earlier today, South Korean officials said that they were still in the process of identifying the victims but almost 90 per cent of those killed have now been identified.

Interior Minister Lee Sang-min noted that it takes more time to identify foreign nationals or teenagers who have yet to be registered with the government, in which cases they have to directly check with the families.

Park Ji-won, who runs a Middle Eastern restaurant across the street from Hamilton Hotel, said he saw emergency workers bring out people in stretchers among the huge throngs of crowds as he closed his restaurant around 11 pm – but had no idea what just taken place nearby.

“I just presumed a fight broke out — in my 10-plus years of doing business here, I only saw ambulances when people got assaulted or when there were fires,” Mr Park said.

He said he was “extremely shocked” when he got home and watched the news, which was when the death toll was at a dozen. “But then the death toll kept growing until it became 151,” he said.

Mr Park said Itaewon always had large Halloween crowds, even during raging Covid-19 infections last year. He said shop owners like him usually avoid the narrow alley beside Hamilton Hotel during holiday festivities, because “once you go there, you cannot move or get out.”

The father of a woman in her 20s who died in the disaster said the city’s preparations for the gatherings were inadequate.

“It was expected that there would be a crowd of 100,000 or more in the Itaewon area this weekend,” he told Reuters as he stood in a Seoul funeral home to collect his daughter’s body.

“I think there was no preparation for this, which led to this disaster.”

One first responder noted the striking contrast between Itaewon’s lively and fun character and the brutality of the mass death.

“People were wearing Halloween costumes so the scene was so unrealistic,” an official at an Itaewon tourism organisation who rushed to the scene to try to help told the Associated Press.

Ken Fallas, a Costa Rican architect who has worked in Seoul for the past eight years, noted that some who bore witness to the tragedy appeared understandably unable to process what they were seeing.

“I saw a lot of [young] people laughing, but I don’t think they were [really] laughing because, you know, what’s funny?” Mr Fallas said. “They were laughing because they were too scared. Because to be in front of a thing like that is not easy. Not everyone knows how to process that.”

Itaewon’s international character was shaped by its proximity to a US military garrison nearby, and the area is still home to restaurants, bars and other businesses catering to the American community in Seoul.

The Yongsan Garrison, which served as the headquarters for the US Forces Korea and the United Nations Command until 2017, is less than a mile away from Itaewon. The US forces have since relocated their South Korean headquarters to Pyeongtaek, a city 45 miles south of Seoul, leaving only a small contingent in Yongsan while beginning to hand over the land to the South Korean government.

Even after losing most of its American military customers, Itaewon has remained a major attraction for both South Koreans and foreign visitors, who are drawn to the district’s buzzing and boozy nightlife as well as its international flair.

“The Itaewon community has opened its arms to us for many years and is part of the reason our Alliance is so strong,” said US Forces Korea, which commands the nearly 30,000 American military personnel in the country. “During this time of grief, we will be there for you just as you have been there for us.”

The loved ones of victims killed in a stampede in South Korea are searching for answers in the wake of the disaster.

Philomene Aby headed to a South Korean community centre to search for any news of her 22-year-old son, who went missing in the wake of the crush. Her son, Masela, went to work at a club in the Itaewon area around 6 pm on Saturday. That was the last time Ms Aby, a Seoul resident from the Ivory Coast, saw him.

“I called his number but ... he wasn’t answering,” Ms Aby said while standing in the Hannam-dong Community Service Center, which became a makeshift missing persons facility in the wake of the disaster.

“No one is telling me the truth,” said Ms Aby, who has lived in Seoul with her son for 18 years. With no sign of news about the son, Ms Aby left the centre for the Ivory Coast embassy.

My colleague Aisha Rimi has the full report:

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon has said he will discuss designating the entire capital a special disaster zone, making it eligible for various support schemes.

“We will have to discuss further, but we should be able to produce ways to support even non-Seoul residents when the entire capital is designated as a special disaster zone,” Oh said.

South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol designated Seoul’s Yongsan district a special disaster zone earlier today.