Police delving into possible causes of Itaewon crowd crush

By Park Boram

SEOUL, Nov. 1 (Yonhap) -- Police stepped up an investigation Tuesday into the deadly Halloween crowd crush in Seoul's Itaewon district amid various blame and claims about possible causes as South Korea reels from the deadliest disaster in years.

The tragedy happened Saturday night when a massive crowd of Halloween partygoers packed a narrow 3.2-meter-wide alley in Seoul's entertainment district of Itaewon. Some of them began to fall over, causing others to fall down like "dominoes" and pile up on one another.

Various claims have since been raised among surviving victims and eyewitnesses about what caused the sudden crowd surge on the narrow alley and the subsequent deadly crush, with some claiming deliberate pushing could have been a trigger.

Police were looking into testimonies from dozens of eyewitnesses and surveillance camera footage to reconstruct the circumstances of the Saturday night crowd surge that left at least 155 people, mostly in their 20s, killed and 30 others seriously injured, according to police officials.

At the center of the claims is a suspicion raised through social media and news interviews that some people on the upper side of the sloped alley cried "push, push" and thrust other people, resulting in the deadly crush.

Allegations have also arisen that a massive crowd of people surged into the narrow alley to see a celebrity visiting the area at that time.

According to police officials, a police investigation is currently under way into those claims, although no criminally punishable acts have been identified so far.

Nam Gu-jun, chief of the National Office of Investigation, said a 475-member special investigative team had interviewed 44 eyewitnesses as of Monday and secured 52 pieces of surveillance camera footage in 42 places around the scene to determine the exact cause of the accident.

Videos posted on social media were also being scrutinized, he said.

Some survivors have also claimed operators of stores along the alley blocked the entrances to people fleeing the crushing crowd, although experts said it would be nearly impossible to criminally punish them for "denying voluntary rescue."

Many expect the investigation could also be directed toward police in charge of the precinct and the municipal government of Yongsan that administers the Itaewon neighborhood for failing to carry out advance accident prevention measures in negligence of their safety management duties.

The Itaewon tragedy marked the deadliest crowd crush in South Korea's history and the worst disaster the country has seen since 2014, when the ferry Sewol sank in waters off the south coast and killed 304 people, mostly high school students.

Two-thirds of the victims, or 103 people, were in their 20s, and 100 of those killed were women, due largely to what experts say is their relatively smaller frame and less muscle mass to resist crushing pressure.

President Yoon Suk-yeol declared a weeklong mourning period till Saturday, and mourning altars have been set up nationwide to allow people to burn incense and pay their respects to those killed.

pbr@yna.co.kr
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