Evidence from the mass disaster in Seoul: "Please don't go out, people are dying"
Could the disaster that killed 151 revelers in Seoul have been avoided?
The police did not control the thousands who flocked to the colorful restaurants and K-pop clubs and were pushed into the alley, in part because the officers were busy with anti-government protests elsewhere.
"I felt like the sky was falling," said the mother of her daughter who was crushed to death
news agencies
10/31/2022
Monday, October 31, 2022, 06:26 Updated: 08:22
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On video: disaster in Seoul (Reuters)
The first celebrations after the Corona closures began last weekend in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, and ended in one of the country's biggest disasters, when more than 150 people, most of them young, were crushed to death in a narrow alley.
There were few police officers around despite the Halloween events, and from the crowd came cries of "push, push" followed by a large push of people that created, according to the testimony reached by the New York Times, "a tangle of too many people, crammed into too little space."
On Saturday night, the bars and nightclubs of Seoul were crowded with many revelers, who came to the K-pop concerts, and the colorful restaurants in the city.
But as the evening went on, the place filled up more and more.
At one point, many of them were squeezed into an alley barely 11 meters wide, in a bottleneck that made it difficult for those in it to move and even breathe.
32-year-old Zen Ogren found herself stuck in a crowded club next to the narrow alley, a thoroughfare that connects a strip of bars to a busy subway station and a popular photo spot.
According to her, outside the door of the club, people shouted, "Please don't come out, people are dying."
The security guards implored the crowds not to push back, but many pushed forward, stepping on those who had fallen.
"They just wanted out," Ogren said.
The stampede finally resulted in the death of many, most of them in their 20s and 30s, who were crushed under the feet of the crowd.
The disaster that befell Seoul raises questions in the country about the responsibility of the authorities.
These questions are added to the existing problems in the country, concerning President Yoon Suk Yeol, who already suffers from a negative image that causes an increasing number of people to demand his resignation.
"Please don't come out, dead people."
The scene of the mass trampling in Seoul (Photo: Reuters)
After the disaster and the next day, the police closed the streets to traffic in the area, and the bars and restaurants were covered with condolence signs.
The sidewalk became a makeshift memorial, while families waited for a long time waiting to receive information about their relatives with whom contact was lost;
Families searched hospital morgues for their children and the government received thousands of calls about missing people.
Choi Soon-mi waited for hours at a local community center for information about her daughter, Park Gae-young, who had just gone on a trip to Seoul.
Finally she received the news that her daughter was among the dead.
"The feeling was as if the sky was falling", she said, "What to do with my girl? What to do with my girl?".
She also said that her daughter planned to study fashion in Canada and was supposed to celebrate her 20th next Tuesday.
Yesterday, the country's interior minister, Lee Sang-min, admitted that the police were not ready, partly because their forces had been diverted earlier on Saturday to nearby districts where anti-government demonstrations had been held.
"The crowd this year was not alarmingly larger, compared to previous years," he said, adding, "but our police forces were dispersed to various demonstrations throughout the city."
More in Walla!
South Korea: 151 people were trampled to death in celebrations, the country's president declared a period of mourning
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The government promised that they would do everything in their power to make their country safer.
The scene of the event (Photo: Reuters)
The police were not ready.
The scene of the mass trampling (Photo: Reuters)
The government promised that they would do everything in their power to make their country safer and that they would start an investigation process into the circumstances of the case.
However, they provided a poor explanation in response to the question of what happened in the alley, and why repeated disasters occur in the country.
South Korea, although considered a technological powerhouse with a thriving pop culture, is also chronically prone to man-made disasters.
In 2014, 16 people attending a concert were killed when the ventilation grid they were standing on collapsed.
That same year, a ferry sank, killing more than 300 people, most of them high school students on a school trip.
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