Forensics investigators examined a debris-littered alley in South Korea on Monday whereas questions swirled over why 154 individuals had been killed within the nation’s deadliest crushing catastrophe.
President Yoon Suk Yeol introduced a weeklong nationwide mourning interval following the Saturday crowd surge that occurred as tens of 1000’s of principally younger Halloween revelers celebrated within the standard nightlife space of Itaewon.
Mourners bowed heads and left flowers at one of many authorities’s particular memorial websites that opened Monday in Seoul and different cities, and many companies canceled Halloween-themed occasions.
South Korea’s authorities had recognized all however one of many victims Monday, however the critical situations of at the least 30 of the 149 injured may increase the loss of life toll, officers mentioned.
Police mentioned they’ve launched a 475-member process drive to research the tragedy. Twenty-six international nationals had been among the many lifeless, together with two People, the State Division confirmed to USA TODAY.
Police mentioned they dispatched 137 officers to take care of order throughout the festivities on Saturday, and a few are questioning whether or not that was sufficient.
This is what we all know:
What led to the gang surge?
The reason for the gang surge — a scene described by witnesses as nightmarish — was below investigation Monday.
The incident occurred in Itaewon, a hilly Seoul neighborhood recognized for the Halloween-themed events which have elevated in reputation lately amongst youthful South Koreans.
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The get together was South Korea’s largest Halloween celebration because the pandemic, and one of many metropolis’s largest because the nation relaxed COVID-19 restrictions in 2022.
Survivors described individuals in costumes being pushed down and toppling over one another alongside a slender downhill alley.
“I nonetheless can’t imagine what has occurred. It was like a hell,” mentioned Kim Mi Sung, who carried out CPR on a number of victims on the scene.
How are police investigating the catastrophe?
As Nationwide Forensic Service employees examined the positioning of the incident Monday for solutions, the police process drive was additionally assigned to look into the reason for the surge. Investigators pieced collectively the evening’s occasions utilizing footage from space safety cameras and movies posted to social media.
Greater than 40 witnesses and survivors have spoken with police, in line with senior police officer Nam Gu-Jun.
“The federal government will totally examine the reason for the incident and do its finest to make mandatory enhancements of programs to forestall the same accident from recurring,” South Korea’s Prime Minister, Han Duck-soo, mentioned at a disaster-related assembly.
Why are officers dealing with criticism?
Officers’ determination to assign fewer than 140 law enforcement officials to the casual Halloween occasion attended by 1000’s has come below fireplace amid requires accountability within the catastrophe’s wake.
The South Korean authorities has additionally insisted that there was no strategy to predict the gang would get uncontrolled.
The 137 officers in Itaewon had been instructed to watch crime and drug use moderately than crowd security. “Nobody was taking care of pedestrian security,” mentioned Kong Ha-song, a catastrophe prevention professor at South Korea’s Woosuk College.
Kong mentioned potential bottleneck factors ought to have been monitored by extra police and authorities employees, who he mentioned could have prevented the tragedy by imposing one-way strolling lanes and shutting off entry to slender pathways.
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Emergency employees searching for assist from pedestrians to carry out CPR had been overwhelmed by the dense crowd, which delayed paramedics from reaching the scene, mentioned Choi Sukjae, an emergency drugs specialist and chief spokesperson of the Korean Emergency Medical Affiliation.
Seoul-based Hanyang College city planning professor Lee Changmoo mentioned the gang surge deaths must be seen as a “artifical catastrophe.”
“Our nation often does a very good job in following the guide and sustaining crowd management at occasions the place there’s a particular organizer, however officers are sometimes not sure what to do and even do not care about occasions that aren’t created by a particular organizer, though it’s these occasions that often require a more in-depth watch,” he mentioned.
By comparability, in one other a part of South Korea’s capital the evening of the gang surge, practically 7,000 law enforcement officials had been assigned to patrol protests that drew at the least 10,000 attendees.
Hong Ki-hyeon, a senior nationwide police company official, mentioned police haven’t got a longtime protocol for informally organized gatherings.
“In occasions like festivals which have a particular organizer, discussions are made between associated municipalities, police, fireplace departments and medical consultants who put together and cooperate below totally different roles,” Hong mentioned. “That’s what we lacked concerning this accident.”
Who had been the US victims in South Korea?
The loss of life toll of People killed within the crowd surge remained at two Monday, and three U.S. residents had been injured, the State Division mentioned.
The 2 People killed had been 20-year-old faculty college students: Anne Gieske, a nursing junior from the College of Kentucky, and Steven Blesi, a world enterprise main from Kennesaw State College. Each universities confirmed the scholars’ deaths on Twitter.
Gieske’s mother and father expressed heartbreak and devastation over their daughter’s loss of life by way of the workplace of U.S. Ohio Rep. Brad Wenstrup, who was Gieske’s uncle.
“She was a shiny gentle cherished by all,” her household mentioned in an announcement.
Gieske was finding out overseas with two different Kentucky college students who’ve been confirmed protected, in line with college President Eli Capilouto.
Contributing: Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY; Cameron Knight, The Cincinnati Enquirer; The Related Press