At least 120 people have been killed and 150 injured after they were crushed by a Halloween crowd in the South Korean capital of Seoul, an official says.
Warning: Graphic content
Choi Seong-beom, chief of Seoul’s Yongsan fire department, said of those confirmed dead, 46 were hospitalised with the rest taken to a nearby gymnasium.
As many as 81 people were reported to be having ‘breathing problems’ after thousands of revellers rushed through an alleyway in the Itaewon nightlife district Saturday night.
About 50 people are thought to have gone into cardiac arrest, news agency Yonhap reported.
President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered the Ministry of Health and Welfare to deploy disaster medical teams and secure hospital beds for those injured.
Alarming footage showed citizens, police officers and emergency medical workers performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on dozens of people lying in the street.
Other images from the scene showed body bags lining the streets and firefighters carrying bodies covered with white sheets on stretchers to ambulances.
One clip appeared to show responders desperately trying to save people from being crushed as people were left piling on top of one another.
Firefighters were called to the party hotspot Hamilton Hotel where various Halloween celebrations were being held, officials said.
The stampede spilt into a narrow alleyway outside exit two of Itaewon station, outside a row of bars including Ravo and Oasis Bar & Cafe.
National Fire Agency official Choi Cheon-sik said at least 59 people had died and 150 were injured.
Thirteen of those killed had been hospitalised and the rest remain at the scene.
The alleyway has since been taped off.
Choi said around 400 rescue workers from around the nation had been deployed, including nearly all available city personnel.
Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon, who was visiting the Netherlands, cancelled the rest of his trip and is returning home.
An emergency broadcast has been pinged to every mobile phone in the Yongsan District during people go home due to ‘an emergency accident near Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon’.
Ahead of one of Seoul’s most popular nights of the year, the narrow street was jam-packed with as many as 100,000 people eager to celebrate Halloween.
Covid-19 restrictions had only been eased months ago, with Itaewon, a district chock-full of bars and nightclubs, the place to be.
Some social media users have claimed the surge erupted as a large number of people rushed to a bar to see an unidentified celebrity.
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