After Seoul Halloween disaster, South Koreans are asking about the preparedness of authorities - The Washington Post

“I thought, ‘Okay, I’m going to beryllium next,’” said Juliana Velandia Santaella, a aesculapian pupil from Mexico who was pulled from the assemblage by a antheral lasting nearby. “I truly thought I was going to die.”

By Sunday, those frantic moments had fixed mode to a procession of mourners bringing achromatic flowers and candles to the scene, on with questions astir however a solemnisation could person turned into a assemblage crush that killed astatine slightest 153 radical successful 1 of the worst disasters of its benignant successful caller history.

As condolences rolled successful from astir the world, South Korean officials said Sunday that they had identified astir each of the victims, among them 20 overseas nationals from 10 antithetic countries, including 2 from the United States, 1 of whom was a 20-year aged assemblage pupil from Marietta, Ga., spending a semester abroad. Others were from Iran, Norway, Uzbekistan and China. The remainder were mostly young South Koreans successful their 20s and 30s who’d packed into the constrictive alleyways of a historical nightlife territory known arsenic Itaewon, according to South Korea’s Interior and Safety Ministry.

Among the questions South Koreans are raising successful the aftermath of the catastrophe is wherefore nationalist information officials did not expect the request to negociate a assemblage of tens of thousands of partygoers expected for the wildly fashionable Halloween celebrations.

Only 2 days before, the surrounding Yongsan territory unveiled information measures that included coronavirus prevention, thoroughfare cleanliness, edifice information inspections and crackdowns connected imaginable usage of drugs.

Missing from the district’s plans were preparations to negociate the anticipated regular assemblage of astir 100,000 — and the imaginable for specified crowds connected constrictive streets and alleys to pb to a suffocating crush.

The alley, connected a hill, filled up with radical Saturday night. It was truthful packed that erstwhile radical astatine the apical of the elevation fell, it created a cascade. Many radical toward the bottommost of the elevation chanted “stop pushing, halt pushing,” according to witnesses interviewed successful South Korean media.

The oversight highlighted limitations successful the nation’s policies governing wide gatherings successful nationalist places, experts say. Although elaborate information protocols are required for authoritative events, specified arsenic festivals, the aforesaid catastrophe prevention methods bash not use to nationalist spaces wherever ample crowds are expected to stitchery informally, making information protocols ambiguous with nary wide bureau successful charge, they said.

The nonstop origin of the assemblage surge is nether investigation.

Mehdi Moussaïd, a researcher successful assemblage behaviour astatine the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, said the comparatively spontaneous quality of the lawsuit — determination are nary tickets, and nary controlled entries and exits — exacerbated the disaster.

He watched publically disposable videos of the crush and “saw what I typically spot successful these kinds of accidents — determination were galore people, excessively galore radical successful narration to the disposable space. [This is] measured by density, truthful the fig of radical per quadrate meter.”

In this case, arsenic successful others he’s studied, helium thinks determination were astir 8 to 10 radical per quadrate meter.

“At that level of density, it’s nary astonishment that the archetypal fewer radical statesman to faint, due to the fact that they’re excessively choky and they tin nary longer breathe,” helium said. “And if this continues, and that’s what happened, past each the radical successful that portion volition nary longer person capable oxygen, adjacent aft they faint, and volition dice 1 aft the other.”

The crush successful Seoul was antithetic from those astatine euphony festivals oregon spiritual pilgrimages, helium added, due to the fact that radical are “in a city, and it’s not a planned lawsuit with introduction tickets that let for funneling of the crowd. We don’t cognize which thoroughfare radical volition spell to.”

The Itaewon alley astatine the halfway of Saturday’s assemblage crush besides appeared unsafe the nighttime before, with crowds swaying broadside to broadside successful a cramped corridor arsenic their value shifted onto 1 another, 1 partygoer said.

Hayley Johnson, 29, who said she had gone retired Friday nighttime to bask the atmosphere, recalled crowds being “manageable” until she reached 2 celebrated clubs, Fountain and Atelier, which are steps distant from the alley wherever the crush occurred.

When she reached the constrictive street, “it was conscionable assemblage to body,” she said. “You would spot down you radical were tipping broadside to side. It truly frightened my person and I.”

The lawsuit tin beryllium described arsenic a assemblage crush oregon surge, but not a stampede, said G. Keith Still, a visiting prof of assemblage subject astatine the University of Suffolk successful England. A crush oregon a surge happens erstwhile radical are packed unneurotic successful a confined abstraction and there’s question specified arsenic pushing that causes the assemblage to autumn over. A stampede implies that radical had abstraction to run, which was not the lawsuit successful Itaewon, helium said.

The much radical who are successful the crowd, the greater the unit of the assemblage crush is. “The full assemblage falls implicit arsenic one, and if you’re successful a confined space, radical past can’t get up again,” Still said.

In the contiguous aftermath of the disaster, bodies were laid retired successful the streets arsenic onlookers frantically attempted CPR, pulling shirts implicit faces to awesome erstwhile their efforts had failed. Video footage reviewed by The Washington Post shows constabulary officers moving toward the scene, a antheral being treated with a defibrillator, and a woman’s assemblage covered with apparel arsenic humor pooled by her side. Others laic inactive with mouths open.

“It was astir post-apocalyptic. It was astir each civilians, nary aesculapian personnel, trying to prevention these people,” said tech idiosyncratic Yoon-sung Park, who helped transportation injured radical to safer crushed for CPR. “People were laid crossed present each the mode down, astir a fractional mile,” helium added, gesturing toward Itaewon’s main marketplace street, wherever exigency responders had wheeled covered corpses into ambulances. “There were truthful galore bodies.”

Looking retired from a model successful their ninth-floor edifice country Saturday night, Joshua and Angela Smith, siblings from Florida, watched the catastrophe unfold successful the alley below. Joshua saw exigency workers utilizing manus pumps to supply oxygen to 3 victims being wheeled toward ambulances, and helium saw a 4th gurney transporting a assemblage successful a bag. Angela Smith heard screams coming from the alley.

“It was horrible, horrible to see,” Joshua said.

Police ushered a 31-year-old doc from Florida, Sophia Akhiyat, to the alley to help, she said, describing “a heap of humans” astatine the apical of a constrictive thoroughfare that was preventing ambulances from entering the area.

“These people, I deliberation astir of them were adjacent decease oregon dormant by the clip we were helping them,” she said.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol toured the country Sunday, the alleyways present blocked disconnected with constabulary tape, and strewn with Halloween masks and integrative candy buckets. The federation declared a play of nationalist mourning until Nov. 5, with flags flying half-staff connected national buildings.

Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Kelly Kasulis Cho reported from Seoul; Stephanie McCrummen and Praveena Somasundaram from Washington; and Annabelle Timsit from London.