South Korea: How the Halloween tragedy unfolded

After more than 150 people died in a deadly crush in Seoul on Saturday night, the BBC looks at how the tragedy unfolded.

By early evening on Saturday, thousands of mainly young people had converged in Itaewon in the centre of the South Korean capital, a lively party spot whose warren-like streets and alleys are filled with bars and restaurants.

Some accounts say 100,000 people had descended on the area to celebrate Halloween, excited about the prospect of partying again after two years of strict Covid restrictions in the country.

Nuhyil Ahammed, 32, was among the crowd. The IT worker from India lives nearby and had been to Halloween parties in Itaewon for five years running.

Last year the celebrations had been lively, but under control, with police preventing people from entering busy areas. Things were very different this year, he said.

“It was crazy,” he told the BBC. “From 5pm there were too many people on the streets. So I was thinking, what’s it going to be like from seven or eight?”

Around this time, social media messages were being posted online with people saying that the streets of the district were so crowded they felt unsafe.

Mr Ahammed and a group of friends spent the evening in Itaewon, hanging around a narrow, sloping alley off the district’s main street that was about to become the main focus of the tragedy.

“We always go to this alley,” he said. “I don’t know why, but there are always good bars and people in costume.”

By 11pm it was clear something was wrong, and an alarmed Mr Ahammed found himself caught up in a huge crowd of people.

“People began pushing from behind, it was like a wave – there was nothing you could do,” he said. “Even if you were standing still, someone was pushing you from the back and from the front.”

Mr Ahammed fell to the ground but managed to climb above the crowd up some steps along the side of the alley.

It was about 22:20 local time (13:20 BST) when the situation turned desperate. A number of people on the slope fell over, causing a massive crush. Crowds pressing from both ends of the narrow street meant no one could get out..

“People were suffocating, screaming… getting squeezed… falling… there were just too many people,” the 32-year-old said.

“I was on the step just watching everything happening, people taking their last breaths… I was just helpless looking at those people suffocating.”

Ana, a 24-year-old from Spain was also in the area, with her friend, Melissa, a 19-year-old from Germany. The pair were in a bar and tried to leave at 23:00 local time (14:00 BST) when they saw ambulances entering the alley and police asking people to move to make way for dead bodies and the injured.

“There were so many people that they needed normal people to do CPR. So everyone started jumping in and help,” Ana told the BBC.

She said that two friends who knew CPR had gone to help, but that some people had died in their hands.

Ana then went to help, listening to instructions being given to her.

“They were telling me how to hold their heads and open their mouths, and things like that. I was trying to help but they were both dead as well. I have to say all the people they were bringing in to do CPR, most of them were already not breathing so they couldn’t do anything.”

“We couldn’t do anything, that was the main trauma,” she said.

 

Source: BBC