The Japan News by The Yomiuri Shimbun
Halloween crowd surge kills over 150 in Seoul
SEOUL — More than 150 people were killed in a crowd surge during Halloween celebrations in central Seoul on Saturday night. e incident occurred when many people who had gathered for Halloween in the Itaewon area fell over in a narrow alley.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol directed his Cabinet ministers on Tuesday to work on stricter safety measures following the fatal crush.
“e government must implement measures through which similar accidents can be avoided,” Yoon said during a State Council meeting, calling for a drastic review of measures against such fatal accidents.
As of 11 a.m. Tuesday, 156 people had died, including two Japanese women, and about 150 had been injured. e casualties included more than 100 people in their 20s.
According to South Korea’s basic law on disaster and safety management, and its government’s guidelines for safety management based on the basic law, voluntary events without organizers do not have to notify police and the re authorities of their safety management plans in advance.
e Halloween-related celebrations in the Itaewon area did not have any organizers, making it ambiguous where the responsibility lay for safety management at the site.
Greater attendance than normal could easily have been predicted for this year’s events, held as they were following the li ing of COVID-19-related restrictions in South Korea.
According to a report by South Korea’s SBS TV, a police o cer belonging to the Yongsan Police Station in the capital made an internal report to the station a few days before the accident, saying that more people than expected would gather in the area and there was a risk of accidents occurring.
However, only 137 personnel were dispatched to Itaewon by the police station and other authorities, and most of them were investigators focusing on preventing crimes such as the and drug tra cking. As a result, there were no police o cers at the scene who focused on controlling crowds.
On Saturday a ernoon, demonstrations were reportedly held by le -wing civic organizations and others critical of the Yoon administration in locations including near the Gwanghwamun square in central Seoul.
More than 100,000 people are said to have taken part.
South Korea’s laws and regulations require the organizers of demonstrations to notify police in advance. About 6,500 police o cers in total were reportedly deployed to the protest sites.
POLICE CHIEF APOLOGIZES
e head of South Korea’s National Police Agency has apologized for the police’s failure to respond adequately to 11 emergency calls placed before the crowd surge.
Police o cers went to the scene in response to only four of the 11 calls, it has been learned.
“ough we received many calls that alerted us to the serious situation at the scene just before the accident occurred, the on-site response to these calls was insu cient,” Yoon Hee-keun, the agency’s commissioner general, said during a press conference on Tuesday.
Yoon said a special independent organization would be set up “to uncover the truth transparently and rigorously.”
According to the police agency’s report to the National Assembly and local media reports, the rst of the 11 calls was made nearly four hours before the accident, which occurred at around 10:15 p.m.
“I’m going to be crushed to death. Please control [the crowd],” the rst caller said, referring to the slope where the accident occurred.
Police o cers went to the scene but le a er deciding that the congestion at the scene had eased.
Other calls followed, urging that measures be taken to get pedestrians to walk in only one direction. e 11th and nal call came in just four minutes before the fatal crush.
“I’m going to be crushed to death. I’m in trouble,” the caller said, a er which two screams were heard.
FILLED WITH SORROW
A large number of people visited the site of Saturday’s crowd surge to pay tribute and lay owers for victims on Monday night, Halloween. e popular district, which is usually crowded every day with young people until the early hours, has been lled with deep sorrow.
e area nearby the scene of the crowd surge, normally packed with tourists and foreigners, has been closed to traf
c since the accident occurred. On Monday, the area was empty and quiet, with most shops closed and the street lights turned o .
e tragedy has shocked the entire nation. According to South Korean media reports, a number of Halloween events have been canceled across the country.
FAMILY DEVASTATED
Mei Tomikawa, a 26-yearold Japanese woman who died in the crowd crush had been studying in the South Korea capital since June.
“She was a person who took on many challenges,” her father, Ayumu, said Sunday night. “I’m devastated.”
Ayumu, 60, told e Yomiuri Shimbun he had learned of the tragedy on the news that morning.
He recounted how he tried to call Mei’s smartphone, but it was answered by a South Korean police o cer who explained he had found the phone near the site of the incident. He prayed for his daughter’s safety throughout the day, but in the evening was contacted by the Japanese Foreign A airs Ministry, informing him Mei had been identi ed as a victim.
Mei, who hailed from Nemuro, Hokkaido, graduated from a prefectural high school in the city and then attended a vocational school in Sapporo to learn about the wedding industry, her father said. Before relocating to South Korea, she had worked in Tokyo as a web designer and an accessory designer.
“She was working so hard far from home, and she had my full support,” Ayumu said.
An Kozuchi, another Japanese victim, was an 18-year-old university student from Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, studying in South Korea.
“I’m just so upset,” her grandfather told reporters through the intercom at his home in Kawaguchi on Monday. “My heart is breaking.”
Kozuchi went to South Korea in August. When they spoke later, he said she sounded happy and said: “I’m working hard. I want to eat sushi.”
“She was a wonderful granddaughter,” he said, getting choked up. “Before she le , I told her to study hard. I can’t believe something like this could happen.” (Compiled from news issued in print between Oct. 31 and Nov. 3.)