While his agents investigate the causes in a country overwhelmed by the tragedy, the head of public order, Hong Ki-hyun, acknowledges his lack of foresight towards this mass party
As South Korea mourns the young lives lost in Saturday night’s Halloween rush, police are investigating the causes and admit they failed to prevent this tragedy. “It was to be expected that a large number of people would gather there. But we did not expect major casualties due to the concentration of so many people,” the head of the Public Order Department of the National Police, Hong Ki-hyun, acknowledged Monday, according to the state news agency Yonhap.
In his opinion, the crowd that gathered at Itaewon bar, one of the most popular in Seoul, was similar to that of other Halloween parties in previous years. While this was the first to take place after three years banned by the Covid-19 restrictions, the influx was quite similar or, at best, slightly higher. But that doesn’t seem to be the reason for the crowds that formed in an alley just 3.2 meters wide and 40 meters long, where the crowd was trapped as if it were a mousetrap.
Unable to move, 154 youths suffocated to death after falling to the ground and trampled by the crowd. Two-thirds of them, 103, were in their 20s and the majority, 98, were women, shorter and with less bouncy bodies. The dead even include a high school student, aged between 12 and 15, and five high school students, aged between 16 and 18. In addition, the montonera left 149 injured, 33 of them seriously.
Due to the young age of the victims, this stampede has caused a social commotion similar to that caused in 2014 by the sinking of the Sewol ship, which killed 304 passengers, most of them teenagers. For this reason, the police and authorities have been criticized for failing to prevent a disaster like this in a country as developed and organized as South Korea.
“I was told that the police officers deployed to the scene did not notice a sudden increase in crowds,” said Hong Ki-hyun, who complained about the misjudgment of his subordinates. Compared to the 37 to 90 police officers who made up the security force before Covid, this year it was 137, but the majority focused on human trafficking and petty crimes related to drugs or prostitution.
As the person in charge of law and order admits, a fatality has occurred because the police have no manual to deal with large spontaneous concentrations of people and without a clear organizer, such as the Halloween celebration in Itaewon. To celebrate, an estimated 100,000 people have invaded the narrow streets.
Despite the incidents that had already occurred in the ill-fated alley, when other people fell in the middle of the crowd and formed a stopper, the authorities in that spot did not foresee any special measures. For this reason, the government will offer compensation of 20 million won (14,100 euros) to the families of the dead, as well as aid of up to 15 million won (10,500 euros) to pay the funeral costs. The injured receive between five and ten million won (between 3,500 and 7,000 euros).
To clarify the causes of this catastrophe, the police have formed a team of 475 investigators who have already questioned 44 witnesses and collected 52 recordings from security cameras spread over 42 points in Itaewon. Likewise, the officers watch the videos circulating on social networks, but have not yet found any act that constitutes a crime.
As police investigate the causes of the avalanche, altars decorated with white chrysanthemums have appeared in Seoul and across the country to bid farewell and pay tribute to the deceased. In strict black, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol made a flower offering at the altar in front of Seoul City Hall, which was later visited by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and Mayor Oh Se-hoon. As the police probe and investigate their conscience, South Korea mourns the young Halloween dead.
Source: La Verdad
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