South Korea’s response to the Itaewon nightlife disaster and its investigation of narcotics and the police: a case for crowd control
The police chief of South Korea admitted “a heavy responsibility” for not preventing a crowd surge that led to the deaths of more than 150 people during Halloween festivities.
The government has been under scrutiny for its handling of the crowd surge in the Itaewon district, a popular nightlife area which may have been a factor in the disaster.
Yoon said police have launched an intense internal probe into the officers’ handling of the emergency calls and other issues, including the on-the-spot response to the crowd surge in Itaewon that night.
The disaster — which left at least 156 people dead and 151 others injured — was concentrated in a downhill, narrow alley in Itaewon. Witnesses described people falling on one another, suffering severe breathing difficulties and falling unconscious. They also recalled rescuers and ambulances failed to reach the crammed alleys in time because the entire Itaewon area was extremely packed with slow-moving vehicles and a crowd of partygoers clad in Halloween costumes.
During the Cabinet council meeting on Tuesday, the president acknowledged that South Korea does not have research on crowd management. He called for the use of drones and other high tech resources to develop an effective crowd control capability. He said that the government would soon have a meeting with experts to look at national safety rules.
The senior police officer said that officers have been looking at video from about 50 security cameras in the area and posting the clips on social media. More than 40 witnesses and survivors have been interviewed by police so far.
Adding more questions about the role of police was the fact that they sent 7,000 officers to another part of Seoul earlier Saturday to monitor dueling protests involving tens of thousands of people. Police also acknowledged that the 137 officers dispatched to Itaewon were primarily assigned to monitor crime, with a particular focus on narcotics use — not the crowd control.
The death of 29 people in Seoul, the capital city of the country, and the first foreign exchange students in Asia: Report of a crowd surge in the night of Oct. 29
The death toll could rise as officials said that 29 of the injured were in serious condition. The dead included nationals from Iran, China, Russia, the United States, Japan and other countries.
The president wanted the same support for the families of the foreign victims as he wanted for the South Koreans. He also thanked many world leaders for sending condolence messages over the disaster.
On the night of Oct. 29, more than 100,000 partygoers flocked to the Itaewon area of Seoul, crowding bars and packing the neighborhood’s narrow streets and alleys.
In the Yongsan ward in the capital city of the country a special investigation team from the national police force raided the local police agencies.
The national agency said that members of its special investigation unit were going to retrieve materials from police agencies, as well as district offices and fire departments. Local officials and police have faced sharp questions about why they didn’t employ crowd controls or sufficient personnel in the small nightlife district despite anticipating a crowd of 100,000 following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions in recent months.
The interior minister, the emergency office chief, the mayor, and the head of the Yongsan ward office have all apologized.
As of Wednesday, 156 people were confirmed as dead and 157 were being treated for injuries after they were trampled in a crowd surge in an alleyway between a hotel and a dense row of storefronts.
A first-time graduate, a teenager who helped raise her siblings after their father died, and a foreign exchange student are excited for their first trip to Asia.
The Itaewon Street-Shopping Complex, the Location of the Halloween Candy Crush, and the Emergency Call on Park Chang-ki
Videos taken over the course of that night show revelers realizing, at first slowly then in a rush of panic, that what was supposed to be a fun night out was spiraling dangerously out of control.
Most of the people who have died in the past year have been in their teens and 20s. Amid the grief, anger has grown with demands for answers as to how things could have gone so terribly wrong.
A sloping alleyway less that 13 feet wide can be accessed from the Itaewon subway station, between the brick wall of the Hamilton Hotel and some stores. The alley becomes a busy thoroughfare during the weekends when friends gather together for a party.
Park Chang-ki, a parking attendant who works across the road from the alley where the bulk of the crush took place, said by 4 pm on October 29 crowds had become significantly big.
I don’t think that alley is safe. The caller said it feels like people can be crushed to death. I think you have to control this because there are too many people.
According to police logs, the second emergency call came just after 8 p.m., with the caller saying people were being pushed, falling and getting hurt. Someone said that it needed to be controlled.
Things rapidly escalated between 8 p.m. to 9 p.m, with footage showing the Itaewon streets – lined with clubs and bars blasting music – packed with revelers standing shoulder to shoulder, some pushing forward in a slow-moving wave.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/04/asia/itaewon-seoul-korea-halloween-crush-timeline-intl-hnk-dst/index.html
How Anne Lou and Anne-Lou Chevalier fell in a crowd: An American exchange student who had been warned by the crowds at a subway station
A group of people stand in the middle of a large crowd while Anne-Lou Chevalier and her friends make a video of themselves.
unease soon set in. In the video taken just minutes later, a girl says to just try not to fall as the group laughs. Another responds, “I’m scared.” Shortly after, Chevalier says, they began to feel crushed; she passed out and was evacuated, with a photo taken at 8:58 p.m. that shows her being lifted away from the crowd by two men.
The streets were filled by 9:30 p.m., and some people reported being unable to exit the nearby subway station, with new partygoers still arriving in the area.
It was obvious that the danger was present. Ian Chang, a 21-year-old university student from Florida, arrived in Itaewon around 9:40 p.m., intending to meet his friend Steven, an American exchange student, but the crowds were so bad he messaged him at 10:17 p.m.
One of the American victims who died on that night was 22-year-old Anne Gieske from Kentucky, and it is not clear if his warning ever reached her.
Sometime before 10 p.m., Emily Farmer, a 27-year-old English teacher in Seoul, escaped into a bar after being “overwhelmed” by the crowds. Shortly after, she said, rumors began spreading that somebody had died and patrons were not allowed to leave.
By 10:21 p.m., some began taking desperate measures; a photo shows a man scaling a wall to escape, cheered on by bystanders unaware of what was happening.
“At 10:23 p.m. we received more than five reports that people fell, and they could either get hurt or die,” a first responder told CNN, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Authorities rushed to the scene, where they saw up to “10 rows of faces – we couldn’t even see their legs,” said the first responder. It was workers who pulled out the people in the bottom row first, but most of them were unconscious when laid on the ground.
It was difficult for police to help those in need because of the large amount of people. People at a party are performing compressions on people lying on the ground as they wait for medical help.
One 20-year-old eyewitness, who requested anonymity because she did not feel comfortable having her name published, said when an officer tried to direct the crowds, she heard someone ask: “Is he a real policeman?”
Dozens of people were receiving medical assistance after suffering from cardiopulmonary arrest, according to fire authorities in South Korea. Photos show the road full of police cars, with officers cordoning off the area.
Vehicles were asked to turn away from the Itaewon area at 1 pm due to an emergency accident near the Hamilton Hotel.
By 12:30 a.m., the scale of the tragedy was becoming clear, with photos showing a line of blue body bags on the street, as first responders rushed the wounded onto stretchers and into ambulances.
When the first death toll was released just after 1 a.m., it was because of the haste in which they had to transfer injured people and bodies to multiple hospitals.
During those early hours, the city government began receiving a flood of missing persons reports, and launched the days-long effort to identify victims.
By 6 a.m. on Sunday morning, as families across South Korea woke up to the news and began the agonizing search for their loved ones, the death toll had risen to 149.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/04/asia/itaewon-seoul-korea-halloween-crush-timeline-intl-hnk-dst/index.html
Investigating the death of a South Korean man in custody after the Yongsan shooting at the Kremlin-Sta-Kudo factory
He mentioned a special investigation team and promised transparency, saying that he felt deep responsibility for public safety due to the incident.
The Yongsan police station chief was suspended and replaced, he was responsible for the district where it is located. The investigation is ongoing.
Jeong, as the intelligence chief at the Yongsan station, has been accused of destroying evidence that police knew of the crowd risk. He was suspected of deleting an internal report that contained warnings about potential safety risks around Halloween.
Jeong was accused of destroying evidence that police knew of the crowd risk. He was found dead in his home on Friday, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported. His death is being investigated.
The first emergency call arrived at six o’clock, four hours before authorities say the first deaths took place. Few police officers were dispatched in response.
The parliamentary inquiry was demanded by the opposition lawmakers. Some victims’ families plan to file a class action lawsuit in order to get compensation from the government.