At least 151 people have died and more than 82 were injured in a crowd crush in Itaewon, central Seoul, South Korea, according to fire authorities at 10:30am today (October 30).
According to The Korea Herald, the fire department began to receive reports of patients having difficulty breathing at 10:22 pm last night.
Of the people who died, more than 100 were transferred to the hospital. The remaining bodies were kept on site and later moved to a nearby multi-purpose indoor gymnasium. Identifying the deceased is expected to take some time, according to fire officials.
Most of the dead were in their 20s. Officials expect that the number of casualties will continue to rise throughout the day.
Officials also confirmed that 19 foreigners were among the dead as of 10:30am today. Among the foreign nationals who died were people from Iran, Uzbekistan, China and Norway.
The death toll is currently made up of 97 women and 54 men.
A total of 848 personnel, including 364 firefighters, were mobilised to deal with the accident and 142 ambulances were deployed.
At around 11:30pm rescue workers were spotted conducting CPR on dozens of people that went unconscious near the Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon, based on videos that have been circulating online. Initial reports said there were around 50 patients experiencing cardiac arrest at the scene.
Around 100,000 people were in the district throughout the day on Saturday to celebrate the first Halloween weekend without mask and social distancing measures since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Witnesses said that even before the chaos broke out, partygoers were packed so tightly in the narrow streets that it was difficult to move around.
Following reports of the incident, President Yoon Suk-yeol said, “All related ministries and agencies, led by the minister of public administration and security, should make every effort to promptly provide aid to the victims.”
The president has also called for safety measures to deal with emergencies that could be triggered at Halloween events taking place throughout the country.
“I pray for those who died in an unexpected accident and hope that the injured will recover quickly.”
We offer our deepest condolences to the families of the deceased and hope that this would serve as a reminder for future events.
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