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South Koreans mourn, wants answers after Halloween crush kills 153

17 Comments
By Soo-hyang Choi, Daewoung Kim and Hongji Kim

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17 Comments
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So sorry to hear about this. My prayers go out to them and to their parents as well.

Shocking. ; - ((

Where was crowd control?

-1 ( +8 / -9 )

People standing up were crushed to death. That’s the terrifying thing about crowd crush - you don’t have to fall down to die. The pressure gets so bad you can’t breathe in.

Video showed that even when the alley entrance was clear the people were so jammed together they couldn’t move while rescuers were failing to pull people out because they were stuck. I’ve never seen anything like this.

13 ( +13 / -0 )

Korea Heral Map of incident - https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20221030000272

Google map street view showing the entrance to steeply sloped alley where many of the deaths occurred - https://www.google.com/maps/@37.5349883,126.993338,3a,75y,191h,51.35t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sfPi6Xv8FP75eDjpzjfP4GQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

3 ( +3 / -0 )

I watched videos of people getting off the train in Itaewon and already they were walking shoulder to shoulder taking 1-5 steps per minute. I know that I am not that young anymore but I don't see the attraction of an event like that.

10 ( +10 / -0 )

Saw an interview on TV with a young woman who reinforced what I suspected was part of the problem.

In large crowds of young people, it is not uncommon for them to start pushing the crowd. I can relate, remembering my younger days. Pushing is part of the fun of a large crowd, unless it becomes deadly. Most of the time, the pushing would have resulted in nothing more than annoyance. Unfortunately, this time was different.

I remember a time when we were in Rome. It was a national holiday, and there were a lot of football (soccer) matches. We were suddenly surrounded by a mob of young people having fun. I was able to trade places with my wife, and protect her from being crushed. The kids thought it was a load of fun. No one got hurt, but it could have been worse.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

Saw on the internet a surviving woman in the main crush, who is in the hospital, her leg all purple up and down from bruising, describe how a woman next to her was crying until she finally succumbed to the crush and died.

That’s what makes this even more horrific, the time that it took for these poor young people to die, and survivors who were next to them for over one hour before they were rescued.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

You really wonder what kind of measures the South Korean authorities can do to avoid a repeat of this extremely unfortunate tragedy. Like it or not, they may have to consider physical changes to much of Itaewon itself for better crowd control.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

You really wonder what kind of measures the South Korean authorities can do to avoid a repeat of this extremely unfortunate tragedy. Like it or not, they may have to consider physical changes to much of Itaewon itself for better crowd control.

It's weird because Korea loves to regulate and control protests. I guess that's what they'll do next.

-6 ( +2 / -8 )

The public safety record of South Korea was terrible, last time when a ferry sank,hundred of children were drowned due to the delay of rescue!

0 ( +4 / -4 )

South Korea has always been a tinderbox for safety. I never understand the clueless foreigners who never lived in South Korea bemoaning Japan despite the latter being far safer. Even in places such as India these things tend to happen in rural sites when people fall off a mountain or into a river.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Yesterday, in India, a suspension bridge collapsed killing more than 80. Too many people using it during Diwali.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Where a formal public inquiry should have been announced, a media circus with all the assumptions, leaks, and press briefings has taken over.

153 relatives want answers, recommendations, a minister of government should have tasked with leading the inquiry.

At present all the families of the deceased have as consolation, is media speculation.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I've read in a couple of reports that there were 5 or 6 guys pushing the crowd which may have triggered this totally tragic event - if the authorities find this to be the case when their enquiries are undertaken, this could result in the prosecution for mass-murder for these guys, assuming they survived themselves, of course.

It just seems such an utterly needless waste of young lives, which should have been completely avoidable - heads need to roll on the policing and security-services sides.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I read that a popular Korean Celebrity was killed, and also that there were rumors at the time, that a popular Korean Celebrity was in that area which triggered the mad rush into it.

Clearly, crowd control was lacking at the time.

Halloween has become a "popular" event for the younger generations to express themselves, sadly they lack restraint and experience of their elders at such events.

Japan's seemingly draconian restrictions now, look quite sensible.....

0 ( +1 / -1 )

People want answers or... someone to put the blame on.

The simple answer is that it was an accident and there's no one to blame.

What could be done, tho, is to have better crowd control next year.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

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