South Korea | Stampede leaves at least 120 dead and 100 injured in Seoul

(Seoul) At least 120 people died and a hundred others were injured in the night from Saturday to Sunday in a stampede in Seoul, where thousands of people had thronged the narrow streets of a district of the South Korean capital during Halloween celebrations.

“As of 2:30 a.m. (Saturday 12:30 p.m. ET), 120 people were killed and 100 others injured,” a fire official from the South Korean capital, Choi Seong, told reporters at the scene of the disaster. -boom.

“The large number of victims is due to the fact that many people were trampled during the Halloween party,” he added, believing that the toll could still increase.

A previous toll reported 59 dead and 150 injured.

“Cardiac arrests”

Firefighters in the South Korean capital first announced that dozens of people had suffered cardiac arrest in the Itaewon district of central Seoul.

In South Korea, rescue officials speak of cardiac arrest until a doctor has officially pronounced a person dead.

A fire department spokesman said 140 ambulances had been dispatched to the scene to attend to the victims.

The victims seem to have been caught in crowd movements in this district where Halloween celebrations gather a large number of people in the South Korean capital.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has called for hospitals to be prepared to receive the injured, the presidency said.

Bodies covered

Photographs released by Yonhap showed more than a dozen people lying in a street, with rescuers performing CPR on some of them, as police cordoned off the crowds.

According to video footage, around 20 bodies were covered in sheets or blankets, however, as rescuers made no attempt to revive them. Other victims were evacuated on stretchers to ambulances.

The Halloween celebrations this year are the first since the COVID-19 pandemic, in which South Koreans were forced to wear masks outdoors.