A stampede broke out in a narrow lane near the Hamilton Hotel in Etawah.
Seoul:
Party-goers running in panic, desperate attempts for first aid on sidewalks, bodies piled under makeshift shrouds: In Seoul’s vibrant Itawan district, a Halloween celebration turned into tragedy on Saturday.
In this popular, cosmopolitan district of the South Korean capital, which is located close to a former US military base and is famous for its bars and clubs, crowds and stampedes killed about 150 people, the cause of which is still unclear. .
Thousands of people – mostly youth, and many wearing elaborate Halloween costumes – descended on the district on Saturday night, the first major Halloween celebration since most Covid-19 restrictions were lifted.
“My friend said: something terrible is happening outside,” said 30-year-old Jean Ga-Eul, who was drinking at a bar when the stampede broke out.
“I said: What are you talking about? And then I went out to look and there were people in the street doing CPR.”
The district, which was immortalized by the popular 2020 K-drama hit Itawan Class, is a steep sloping, twisty lane on either side of the main road.
Eyewitnesses told AFP that Saturday night’s crowds were exceptionally dense, with Jeanne adding that even before the disaster, he felt unsafe.
“So many people were just being pushed around and I got stuck in the crowd and I couldn’t even get out,” he said.
“I felt like an accident was bound to happen.”
bystanders help
A stampede broke out in a narrow lane near the Hamilton Hotel in Etawah.
Faced with a large number of victims, first emergency responders were asking passersby to perform first aid and CPR on victims in the streets, right next to the chaos.
The bodies of those trampled or crushed lay in queues, covered with blankets or temporary shrouds.
Hundreds of ambulances were parked in front of Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital, which is near Itawan and where a large number of victims were taken.
At the scene, which was surrounded by police and bathed in red by hundreds of flashing lights, music continued to play a few times.
Disturbed passers-by were checking their phones while sitting on the pavement. Others consoled themselves, hugging each other like others – seemingly unaware of the scale of the tragedy unfolding next to them, continued to celebrate.
Police investigators searched the streets buried under the rubble.
“It’s always crowded, but it’s never happened before,” 24-year-old Xu Young Posamai, a bartender from Itawan district, told AFP.
“I’ve been to a lot of Halloween parties in Korea,” he said, adding: “I never thought something like this could happen in Korea, especially in Itaewon.”
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)