151 killed, 82 injured in Halloween stampede in South Korea
By The Assam Tribune
The deadliest stampede in South Korea's history happened on Saturday night in a narrow downhill alley near Hamilton Hotel in the famous nightlife district after tens of thousands of people visited the area for Halloween.
As of 9 a.m. Sunday, a total of 151 people, including 19 foreigners, have been killed and 82 others injured, 19 of them are critical. Of the deceased, 97 are female and 54 are male.
It was the first Halloween event in Seoul in three years after the country lifted many Covid-19 restrictions. Most of the people on the streets were wearing Halloween costumes.
Video footage showed rescue workers and ordinary people conducting CPR on victims on the streets. Fire authorities initially received dozens of reports from people in the Itaewon area about patients with breathing difficulties.
Rumours at the scene were that a crowd of people had flocked to a place to see a celebrity or candies laced with drugs had been distributed at clubs, but the exact cause of the accident is yet to be known.
After presiding over an emergency meeting on the stampede, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol instructed officials to thoroughly investigate the cause of the accident.