At least 120 dead and more than a hundred injured after an avalanche in a popular entertainment district in Seoul

At least 120 people have died and more than a hundred people are injured, some of them very seriously, after a stampede occurred this Saturday night in the center of Seoul, the capital of South Korea, according to reports Yonhap news agency.

According to the Central Office for Disasters and Security of the South Korean Ministry of the Interior, the incident took place in the Itaewon neighborhood around 10:22 p.m. local time (3:22 ​​p.m. Spanish peninsular time) in the surroundings of the Hamilton Hotel, located in front of a station of subway.

Every year Itaewon, which abuts a US military base, becomes the busiest spot to celebrate Halloween in the South Korean capital.

Although the details of the accident are under investigation, local media report that a large crowd began to push in a narrow and sloping alley near the Hamilton hotel.

According to witnesses quoted by South Korean media, a collective fall occurred at the top of the slope, which caused a chain collapse.

It is suspected that the stampede could have occurred after an unidentified celebrity entered one of the bars in the area, causing nervousness among people who rushed to try to take photos.

According to a firefighter quoted by the Reuters agency, "there is still a lot of chaos in the area" and the emergency services "still trying to find out the exact number of people injured."

In a press conference, the Yongsan district fire department explained that of the approximately 100 injured, at least 25 were receiving "resuscitation" maneuvers, so the number of fatalities could be even higher.

The National Fire Agency has reported that a total of 81 people called for help to the emergency services for having difficulty breathing, while the newspaper

reports that most of the injured are young girls, around 20 years.

It is estimated that some 100,000 people were in this nightlife neighborhood to celebrate the Halloween weekend, the first without masks or social distancing measures since the start of the pandemic.

Videos circulating from the scene show body bags in the streets, emergency workers performing CPR and firefighters trying to help dozens of trapped people.

The authorities have reported that fifty people have received cardiopulmonary resuscitation, while many others have been transferred to nearby hospitals.

Seoul initially reported people "treated for cardiac arrest," but in South Korea the term "cardiac arrest" is often used until an official death announcement is made by a doctor.

According to local media, the authorities sent an emergency message to all mobile phones in the Yongsan district, urging citizens to return home as soon as possible due to "an accident near the Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon.”

Some posts on social networks prior to the stampede already warned that there were more people than usual on the streets.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has called an emergency cabinet meeting and ordered first-aid services to rush to the scene to help those affected.

He has also requested that nearby hospitals be prepared with a sufficient number of beds to treat the wounded.

For his part, the mayor of Seoul, Oh Se-hoon, who was visiting Europe, has decided to return immediately to the South Korean capital after the accident, according to municipal authorities.

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