At least 151 people, including 19 foreigners, died and many more were injured Saturday night in a stampede in central Seoul where tens of thousands of mostly very young revelers celebrated Halloween for the first time after the pandemic.
Lamenting “a tragedy and a disaster that should not have happened”, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol promised that his government would investigate “rigorously” to determine the causes of the disaster, one of the most serious in history recent from South Korea.
“I have a heavy heart and it is difficult for me to contain my sorrow”, added in a televised address to the nation the head of state, who went to the scene of the tragedy on Sunday morning, dressed in the green emergency rescue uniform, and declared national mourning.
Bodies lined up on the sidewalk under blankets or other makeshift shrouds, cardiac massages performed in the street by passers-by at the request of overwhelmed firefighters, people in disguise or in evening dress running in panic: the night turned into a nightmare in the Itaewon district, located near a former American military base and known for its cosmopolitan atmosphere, its bars and all kinds of party places in a maze of narrow streets.
“My friend told me: there is something terrible happening outside,” said Jeon Ga-eul, 30, who was having a drink in a bar at the time of the tragedy. “I answered him: but what are you talking about? I went out to see, and I saw people doing cardiorespiratory massages”.
The accident happened around 10 p.m. Saturday near the Hamilton Hotel, located on a main avenue surrounded by steep alleys. The crowd movement killed at least 151 people, including 19 foreigners of various nationalities, 97 women and 54 men, firefighters told AFP.
The figures for the injured were divergent, with the Ministry of the Interior counting around 150 and the fire brigade 82.
Among the foreigners killed are people from Iran, Uzbekistan, China and Norway, according to the Yonhap news agency.
According to authorities in Seoul, 355 people had also been reported missing early Sunday morning.
“As in a tomb”
“People were on top of each other like in a grave. Some were losing consciousness gradually, others were obviously dead,” an unidentified witness told Yonhap.
In an interview with local TV station YTN, Lee Beom-suk, a doctor who administered first aid to the victims, described scenes of chaos and horror.
“When I first attempted CPR, there were two victims lying on the sidewalk. But soon after the number exploded,” he said.
“Many passers-by came to help us perform heart massage,” he continued. “It’s hard to describe in words […] Many of the victims had pale faces. I couldn’t take their pulse or control their breathing, and many of them had bloody noses. When I tried to revive them, blood came out of their mouths.
A video shared on Twitter by a netizen claiming to have been in Itaewon at the time of the tragedy shows hundreds of people, most of them very young and in cowboy, pirate or other attire, in a street lined with bars. . The scene, calm at first, suddenly turns to confusion. Passers-by are pushed and fall on top of each other, screams are heard and a woman swears in English and shouts: “Oh my God! Oh my God ! »
Yonhap described scenes of people “falling like dominoes.” “A short person like me couldn’t even breathe,” a witness told the agency.
First party after COVID
Around 100,000 people, according to local media estimates, had come to Itaewon for the Halloween holiday, the first in the South Korean capital since the COVID-19 pandemic, during which large gatherings were banned.
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, who happened to be visiting Europe, decided to rush back, according to Yonhap.
Many international leaders have expressed their dismay.
“We mourn with the people of the Republic of Korea and send our best wishes for a speedy recovery to all those who have been injured,” US President Joe Biden said in a statement.
His French counterpart Emmanuel Macron expressed “a moved thought for the inhabitants of Seoul and for all the Korean people”. “It’s a sad day for South Korea,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz tweeted.