At the scene of the Halloween rush in the popular Itaewon area of Seoul on October 30, 2022. JUNG Yeon-je / AFP
South Korean President Yoon Seok-youl on Sunday, October 30, during an address to the nation, ordered a national mourning effective immediately to honor the victims of the tragic Halloween rush in Seoul’s Itaewon district. According to the latest report from early morning the same day, the tragedy left at least 151 dead, including 19 foreigners, and injured dozens. Two hundred and seventy calls to report the disappearance had been recorded by city authorities.
In his speech, Mr. Yoon lamented a “tragic” event that “never should have happened”: “My heart is heavy and I am struggling to overcome my grief. He promised to do “everything so that something like this doesn’t happen again”.
“This is an unprecedented tragedy. We must accurately determine the cause of the accident,” People’s Power Party Chairman Chung Jin-suk wrote on Facebook. Opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung said he was “shocked and devastated. We must focus on quickly identifying victims and assisting the bereaved and recovering the injured.” Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon has called off a tour that started in Europe on October 21.
“Most of the victims are in their 20s”
The first Halloween celebrations since 2019 and the Covid-19 pandemic had drawn nearly 100,000 people to Itaewon on Saturday — this festive neighborhood in the center of the South Korean capital that has become very popular with foreigners thanks to its proximity to the now-closed US base. They all flocked to the narrow, steep streets behind the Hamilton Hotel, the neighborhood’s famous entry point. Here the toll is highest.
According to the chronology created by the firefighters, the first calls for help were made at 10:24 p.m., three minutes later four emergency vehicles were dispatched to the scene. Then came the warnings. At 11:50 p.m., emergency services from Incheon, a city west of Seoul, and Gyeonggi, a province bordering the capital, were called and intervened. In addition, 848 rescuers, including 346 firefighters, were mobilized. Health and Welfare Minister Cho Kyoo-hong arrived at the scene at 1:40 am on Sunday.
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The death toll quickly rose from about fifty people in cardiac arrest at 2 a.m. to 151 dead at 7 a.m. “Most of the victims are in their 20s,” said Choi Seong-beom, fire chief of the Yongsan district on which Itaewon depends and where the South Korean presidency is located.
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