Of those who were confirmed dead, 46 were in the hospital, the fire department said, with the rest taken to a nearby gymnasium.
By ROMAN MEITAV Published: OCTOBER 29, 2022 18:29
Updated: OCTOBER 29, 2022 21:16
Rescue team members wait with stretchers to remove bodies from the scene where dozens of people were injured in a stampede during a Halloween festival in Seoul, South Korea (photo credit: REUTERS)
A deadly stampede in Seoul’s Itaewon district left 120 partygoers dead after a huge crowd poured into a central district of the capitol in South Korea for Halloween festivities late on Saturday, according to Korean news outlet Yonhap.
As of early Sunday, 120 were reported dead along with 100 who had been transferred to nearby hospitals after suffering cardiac arrest and other injuries, according to local reports.
Of those who were confirmed dead, 46 were in the hospital, the fire department said, with the rest taken to a nearby gymnasium, officials said.
A local police officer said he had also been informed that a stampede had occurred on the streets of Itaewon, where a crowd had gathered for the Halloween festivities, according to the Guardian. The officer requested anonymity, saying the details of the incident were still under investigation.
Shortly after the accident, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol presided over an emergency response meeting in the presidential office in Yongsan, the presidential office said in a statement.
“The top priority is transporting and rescuing the patients and providing prompt medical treatment for the affected people,” Yoon was quoted as saying.
“The top priority is transporting and rescuing the patients and providing prompt medical treatment for the affected people,”
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol
The president also ordered “immediate” response measures, including clearing the path for ambulances and other necessary traffic controls, according to Lee Jae-myeong, deputy spokesperson for the presidential office.
Social media footage showed Police and firemen trying to revive people who’d gone into cardiac arrest amid chaos in narrow streets.
First responders attempt to calm the chaos
Live footage on MBC-TV, a local broadcaster, showed firefighters carrying what looked like bodies covered with white sheets on stretchers to ambulances.
Choi Cheon-sik, an official from the National Fire Agency, said more than 400 emergency workers and 142 firefighting vehicles from around the country have been deployed to the scene, including almost all of those available in Seoul, according to Sky News.
Local media said the narrow alleys of Itaewon were jam-packed with as many as 100,000 people in the entertainment district throughout the day on Saturday to celebrate the first Halloween weekend without masks and social distancing measures since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Korea Herald.
A witness said the stampede happened when a crowd surged down a narrow alleyway.
“People kept pushing down and more people were crushed down,” the witness wrote on Twitter. “People crushed under the crowd were crying and I thought I would be crushed to death too, breathing through a hole and crying for help.”
Content retrieved from: https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-720957.
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