A South Korean army soldier pays his respects to the victims of a fatal accident after Halloween celebrations on Saturday night on a street near the scene in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, January 1. November 2022.
Ahn Young-joon / AP
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Ahn Young-joon / AP
A South Korean army soldier pays his respects to the victims of a fatal accident after Halloween celebrations on Saturday night on a street near the scene in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, January 1. November 2022.
Ahn Young-joon / AP
SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea’s police chief admits “heavy responsibility” for failing to stop a recent crowd spike kills more than 150 people during the Halloween festival in Seoul, on Tuesday said officers had failed to effectively handle previous emergency calls about the impending disaster.
The acceptance comes as the South Korean government faces increasing public scrutiny over whether crowds spiked on Saturday night in Seoul’s Itaewon district, a nightlife neighborhood. famous, can be prevented and who will be responsible for the country’s worst disaster in years.
“I feel a heavy responsibility (about the disaster) as the head of one of the government offices involved,” Yoon Hee Keun, commissioner general of the Korea National Police Agency, said in a statement. a televised press conference. “The police will do their best to prevent a tragedy like this from happening again.”
Yoon said an initial investigation found that there were many emergency calls from residents informing the authorities about the potential danger of a crowd gathering in Itaewon, but the police received that call did not answer them satisfactorily.
Yoon said the police then launched an intense internal investigation to further look into the officers’ handling of the emergency calls and other issues such as their on-site response to the incident. the rise of crowds in Itaewon that night.
The disaster – which left at least 156 dead and 151 others injured – was concentrated in a narrow, downhill alley in Itaewon. Witnesses described people falling over each other, having severe breathing difficulties and passing out. They also said rescuers and ambulances were unable to reach the cramped alleyways in time because the entire Itaewon area was extremely crowded with slow-moving vehicles and a large crowd of partygoers. Halloween costume party.
During a cabinet council meeting on Tuesday, President Yoon Suk Yeol also acknowledged that South Korea lacks research on crowd management. He called for the use of drones and other high-tech sources to develop effective crowd control. He said the government will soon hold a meeting with experts to review overall national safety rules.
The increase in crowds is South Korea’s deadliest disaster since a ferry sinking in 2014 that killed 304 people, and exposed the country’s lax safety rules and regulatory flaws. Saturday’s increase in crowds then raised public questions about what South Korea did to prevent the man-made disaster.
After the Itaewon disaster, the police launched a 475-member task force to find the cause.
Senior police officer Nam Gu-Jun told reporters on Monday that officers had obtained video taken by about 50 security cameras in the area and were analyzing video clips posted on social media. Nam said police have also interviewed more than 40 witnesses and survivors so far.
Police said they sent 137 officers to maintain order during Saturday’s Halloween festivities, far more than the 34-90 officers mobilized in 2017, 2018 and 2019 before the pandemic. But some observers questioned whether 137 officers would be enough to handle the estimated 100.00 people gathered on Saturday in Itaewon.
More questions about the police’s role were the fact that they sent 7,000 officers to another part of Seoul early Saturday to monitor hand-to-hand protests involving tens of thousands of people. Police also acknowledged that the 137 officers sent to Itaewon were primarily tasked with tracking criminals, with a particular focus on drug use – not crowd control.
The death toll could rise as officials say the 29 injured are in serious condition. The dead included about 26 foreign nationals from Iran, China, Russia, the United States, Japan and elsewhere.
President Yoon has asked officials to provide similar government assistance to the bereaved families of foreign victims as well as those killed and injured in South Korea. He also thanked the many world leaders who sent messages of condolences over the disaster.
The Itaewon area, known for its cosmopolitan, foreign-friendly atmosphere, is the country’s hottest spot for Halloween-themed events and parties, with young Koreans taking part in rallies. Dress up contests at bars, clubs and restaurants. Saturday’s gathering of an estimated 100,000 people in Itaewon was the largest Halloween festival in the region since the pandemic began.
The Halloween festival in Itaewon has no official organizer. South Korean police on Monday said they do not have any specific procedures in place to handle incidents such as violent crowds at an unorganized event.
