The death toll from a Halloween stampede in South Korea’s capital Seoul has risen to 154.
An authority grieving period started Sunday, as specialists were all the while attempting to recognize all of the dead, working in a shoddy funeral home set up at the scene. No less than 22 of those killed were outsiders from around twelve nations.
A large portion of the dead were teens or in their 20s. Twenty were outsiders. The reason for the fiasco is as yet being laid out.
Itaewon Halloween Crowd Crush
Eyewitnesses spoke about the heartbreaking incident. Many people have seen friends and people who came to the festival die in front of their eyes. How the celebration of joy turns into mourning is revealed in their narrative.
According to the BBC report, thousands of teenagers and young people in Seoul dressed up in various costumes on the streets of Itaewon. Nuhil Ahmed, an IT worker from India living in Seoul, was present there. “People started pushing from behind,” he said. It’s like a wave. There was nothing to do to handle this wave.
“I couldn’t sleep at night,” Nuhil told the BBC. I have seen people die in front of my eyes.
In a post on Instagram, 32-year-old Nuhil recounted his harrowing experience. Many such videos have gone viral on social media. The video shows that most of the attendees are in their 20s. They got stuck in a narrow lane from which there was no way out. Then they started pushing in different directions. Some fall. Many get suffocated.
Pablo Mari Arsenal Defender in Hospital after Milan Super Center Stabbing
Itaewon in Seoul is known for its variety of night events. Locals, as well as foreigners, come to spend time here. However, during the Halloween festival, this area becomes very busy at night. After a long time after overcoming the restrictions of the Corona epidemic, people started celebrating Halloween. In Itaewon, a large event was organized without masks.
Itaewon Halloween Accident
It is estimated that 100,000 people gathered there last Saturday. No number has been determined as to how many people will gather in such a big event after the corona epidemic. South Korea’s Interior Minister Lee Sang-min said the authorities could not have imagined that so many people would gather on the narrow streets of Itaewon.
It was expected that there would be people like in other years. So the police were deployed elsewhere. At least 82 people were injured in this incident. Lee said many of the dead have not been identified. Because many are under 17, they don’t have adult IDs.
The country’s president Yoon Suk-yeol declared national mourning. He also announced to investigation of the incident.
Describing the incident, Nuhil also said that he had been visiting the Halloween festival in the area for the past five years. He saw many policemen in this area last year. But he did not see any crowd control this year.
Nuhil said he went there with friends. But he did not know why everyone was entering that narrow lane. It is nothing but a popular place for Halloween celebrations. After getting stuck in the crowd, he realizes something terrible is about to happen.
Nuhil also said, ‘There was no situation to stand quietly. If someone was standing, another was pushing from the side, or someone from behind. It happened a few times. I was scared that something terrible was going to happen. Even after falling, I was able to get out somehow because I was on the side of the street. At that time, I saw many people breathing, screaming, crushed under pressure, and falling down. A lot of people had gathered there. All this was happening in front of me. No one understood what to do, we could not do anything either.
Nuhil said he felt helpless. He could not find any friends. Later, when the crowd had thinned, he found them. Everyone got out somehow. Later, the trampled people were rescued by ambulance. There he saw a man who was trying to save some people by giving his friend CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) for 30 minutes. But the friend was dead. A friend was trying to stop him. But he wasn’t stopping.
Itaewon Halloween 2022
As the night wore on, many dressed in Halloween costumes lined the streets with corpses covered in blue sheets. Many bodies are taken in ambulances. Those who were unconscious were quickly treated. Relatives of the missing persons reached the spot on Sunday morning and started searching for their loved ones. But by then the body was removed from the road and taken to a nearby gymnasium for identification. There was a mournful atmosphere in that area on Sunday.
There is three South Korean military personnel also died in this accident confirmed by a Korean defense ministry official.
The South Korean government has set a public grieving period beginning for the rest of November 5, State head Han Duck-soo said in preparation. South Korea’s president has ordered all measures to treat the injured.
During the grieving time frame, every public foundation and conciliatory workplace will fly banners at half-staff, Han said, adding that all non-dire occasions will be delayed.