Itaewon stampede in Seoul, South Korea: police reported hours before tragedy – BBC News

Yes, the caller replied, “It’s really chilling right now”.

It was the first of at least 10 calls received by police in Seoul, South Korea, on Saturday. But local residents said the police that night was completely insufficient.

A growing body of evidence, experts and a series of official apologies all point to a clear dereliction of duty. Local officials and police were ill-prepared to deal with the gathering crowds, and once people gathered, it was difficult for them to contain them.

Earlier on Tuesday, South Korea’s police chief said their emergency response was “inadequate,” the first time officials admitted they were not doing enough to prevent the situation.

It is estimated that thousands of people come to Itaewon to celebrate Halloween. Itaewon is famous for its nightlife. That’s a staggering number, even for an otherwise busy neighborhood.

Jeong An-sook lives two blocks behind the main street in Itaewon, about 300 meters from the accident site. She tried to go out between 9 and 10 p.m. local time, but said the crowd on her street was so dense that she could not move. She was frightened, so she went home.

A restaurant owner who went home at 22:00 local time said he could not even get off at Itaewon Station because it was too crowded. So he went to another station and took a detour home.

Another woman was selling flowers for people to place in front of a makeshift memorial for the victims. She is a money changer. She said no police were seen at the time. Earlier in the evening, local volunteers tried to organize the crowd, not the police, she said.

She also said the local business association had appealed to police last week for help in controlling the weekend crowd, but was not helped.

It is understood that the Longshan District Council held two meetings. The first, on October 26, included local police officers, subway station masters and local business associations. The next day, council staff held a second meeting to discuss how to handle the weekend’s Halloween celebrations.

According to the Yongshan District website, they discussed COVID-19 prevention measures, inspections of food vendors, safety at large venues and subway stations, garbage collection, illegal parking, and more. On October 27, District Mayor Park Hee-young said: “This is the first Halloween in three years without social distancing. We will do everything we can to ensure the safety of our residents as we are concerned about the re-spreading of the new coronavirus, drug incidents and other ACCIDENT.”

There is no evidence that crowd control issues were raised or discussed at either meeting.

Local businesses told the BBC that a global village festival was held there in early October to showcase Itaewon’s international features. The event was organised by the council and a crowd control plan was prepared.

But after the accident, District Mayor Park Hee-young told local media that Yongsan District had done everything possible, but there was no single organizer for the Halloween celebration, unlike other events. She has since apologized to the victims and their families.

While the blame game among the officials continued, the truth was that nothing stopped the hundreds of people, mostly in their teens or 20s, from gathering in the ramp alley that night. Once that happens, experts say, it’s almost impossible to avoid what happens next.

The cramped space trapped them, and the slope meant a domino effect when some fell off. People moved in several directions at the same time, pushing and trying to escape the crowd.

Police are investigating the stampede after someone at the scene allegedly shouted “push, push”, but experts said it was to be expected in what they called an “abnormal crowd”.

Baek Seung-joo, a fire safety professor at South Korea’s Open Cyber ​​University, said more than five people per square meter were considered potentially dangerous, while there were at least 10 people per square meter in the alley. He said he made that estimate based on images and video footage.

“Instinctively, in this situation, people don’t help each other, they compete with each other, they don’t follow orders…You can’t blame young people who push others under extreme pressure,” he said. It is responsible to control the crowd in advance.”

Officials and experts now believe that so many people flock to the alley because of its proximity to the Itaewon subway station, where there is a lot of traffic.

Kwon Seol-a, director of the Center for Disaster Safety Innovation at Chungbuk University in South Korea, believes officials could have ensured that subway trains would bypass Itaewon Station or prevent vehicles from entering the area to make more space for pedestrians.

But officials now point fingers at each other. South Korean police said they asked the Seoul Metropolitan Subway to bar trains from stopping at Itaewon Station on Saturday to limit crowds. South Korea’s subways denied this, saying they only received the official request an hour after the deadly stampede.

Longsan police also said local businesses asked them not to control crowds on weekends to avoid reducing customers, a matter denied by the local business association.

But it’s clear that police aren’t taking even the simplest crowd-control measures that are being done elsewhere.

However, the seriousness of the situation was evident in the first alarm hours before the death report.

“No one controls it now,” the caller said. “The police have to control the situation. You should get people out first, then people in. People keep pouring in, but they can’t get out.”

occurSafety tips when crowded

The following recommendations come from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In general, crowd control experts also recommend that people try to stand up as much as possible to store energy.