Halloween victims in Seoul are mostly young girls and women
Halloween victims in Seoul are mostly young girls and women in their teens or early 20s according to the data published on Tuesday by the Interior and Safety Ministry. In what was intended to be a night of post-pandemic celebration in the well-known Itaewon nightlife district on Saturday, more than 150 people, largely costumed partygoers in their 20s, died in a crowd crush.
According to the data published, at least 156 people—101 of them women—mostly in their teens or early 20s—were killed in the Seoul crowd crush on Saturday night.
In “crowd turbulence” situations, like the one that occurred in the Itaewon alleys on Saturday, when a crowd’s density reaches a critical threshold and results in a catastrophic crush, experts say women are especially vulnerable since they are frequently shorter and less physically powerful than men.
“Five to 10 centimeters in height makes a big difference when it comes to chest pressure,” told Choi Sukjae, an emergency medicine specialist and public relations director of the Korean Emergency Medical Association to ABC News.
A small passageway was where the majority of victims fell. Witnesses stated how confused partygoers pushed and shoved, unaware that individuals were falling, only to be trampled and crushed to death since there were no police or crowd control measures in place.
When first responders arrived on the scene and were able to free victims from the tangled mass of corpses, they had to remove their clothing and lose their shoes in order to give CPR.
Around 260 pieces of clothing, including pieces of Halloween costumes, and 256 pairs of shoes have been set out by the police at the gym. Many of the items are creased, soiled, or covered in dried blood.
Officials Apologised For The Seoul Crowd Crush
On Tuesday, South Korean officials accepted responsibility and apologised for their shortcomings in preventing and handling a Halloween crowd surge that claimed more than 150 lives and stunned and incensed the country’s populace.
The question of whether or not the crush on Saturday night in Seoul’s Itaewon neighbourhood could have been avoided and who should bear blame for the nation’s biggest calamity in years is one that the administration is coming under increasing public scrutiny.
Yoon Hee Keun, the head of the national police, claimed that a preliminary inquiry revealed numerous urgent calls from individuals alerting authorities to the possible risk posed by the crowd gathering in Itaewon. He said that the calls were not properly handled by the responding police officers. “As the leader of one of the associated organisations, I feel a significant responsibility (for the disaster).
Oh Se-hoon, the mayor of Seoul, apologised profusely, broke down in tears, and abruptly ended his news conference as he discussed the parent of a 20-year-old woman who had been pronounced dead earlier in the day. When I attempted to console a person yesterday who had a daughter hospitalised at the National Medical Center, they assured me that they believed their daughter would live. But I’ve heard that she died this morning. I regret having to apologise so late.
