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At Least 149 Killed as Halloween Crowd Surge Turns Deadly in South Korea


Credit…Matej Leskovsek / The New York Times

The flames of neon signs and the jumble of big brands, all too familiar from the nightlife districts of cities across Asia, caused horror at what took place in Seoul on Sunday. Saturday night was even more jarring.

Ravo, Fireball Whiskey and Oasis Bar & Cafe claim to hang billboards at an intersection in the city’s Itaewon district. “Happy Halloween,” read another large sign in yellow, red, pink, and blue letters. It’s all a magnet for young people looking for a good time.

But videos taken shortly after the crowd spiked, in which more than 140 people were killed and more than 100 injured, tell a different story. One showed emergency workers in neon vests pumping blood furiously into the chests of people scattered across the ground in a desperate attempt to revive them.

“There were so many people that we couldn’t move,” said Song Su-yeon, 46, who was visiting from the city of Incheon and arrived at Itaewon subway station an hour after the event. “Looks like I’ll die if I fall.”

Another witness wrote on Twitter: “People kept pushing down and many people were pushed down,” another witness wrote. “Everybody was crushed under the crying crowd and I thought I would too from breathing through a hole and calling for help.”

A trio of friends, dressed in club attire, were ready to party when they arrived in Itaewon. Then they saw a row of bodies lying on the road in blue plastic blankets. Lee Seong-eun, 30, from Seoul, said: “It was scary. “I couldn’t believe what I saw.”

Her friend Jeong Sol, also 30, said the crowd was so sprawling that it took officials a long time to clear it up to make way for rescue and evacuation. “Too bad we couldn’t even see the road,” Jeong said. “We were pushed around a lot. People are pushed and manipulated, whoever they are.”

Hours later, ambulances still carrying bodies, covered with yellow sheets, were away and late-night partygoers were working on their way home. Even then, authorities say they have no clear idea of ​​what happened and how an annual festival has grown so rapidly into one of the country’s biggest disasters in recent years. many years.

One of the most common reactions on social media soon after the incident was expressions of concern for people who were nearby, or who may have been there but are now not answering their phones. surname.

“I really hope my friend in Seoul is sleeping and safe,” a tweet read.

Those who have been involved in such situations have later said that the greatest shock is the sudden jolt from normal to panic that can engulf a crowd and the feeling that the normal world is suddenly destroyed. reverse.

One bystander said he saw limp bodies, in the street. “I wish I hadn’t,” he said. “But I did. It was heartbreaking.”

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