At least 156 people were killed and dozens more were injured in a stampede in central Seoul on Saturday night. Tens of thousands of revelers, most of them very young, were celebrating Halloween for the first time after the pandemic when this tragedy occurred.
The police knew “that a large crowd had gathered even before the accident occurred, which indicated the danger urgently”, estimated the head of the national police Yoon Hee-keun, who considered “insufficient” the way in which this information was processed.
The police pointed the finger
About 100,000 people were expected, but due to the unofficial nature of the event, neither the police nor local authorities actively managed the crowd.
Police said they sent 137 officers to Itaewon for Halloween, while 6,500 police officers were mobilized for another protest in the South Korean capital attended by just 25,000 people, according to local media.
Very quickly, the South Korean authorities were singled out for the tragedy. On social media, many users have accused the police of completely failing in crowd control, leaving too many people around the Itaewon subway station and in the alleys where the deadly stampede took place. .
Source: BFM TV
