Itaewon crush: First emergency call came hours before crush

The archetypal telephone to constabulary from Itaewon came astatine 18:34 section clip - respective hours earlier the deadly crush took place.

The caller to South Korea's 112 exigency fig said they were connected the main thoroughfare to Itaewon and an alley adjacent to the Hamilton edifice was becoming dangerously crowded.

"That alley is truly unsafe close present radical going up and down, truthful radical can't travel down, but radical support coming up, it's gonna beryllium crushed. I hardly made it to get retired but it's excessively crowded. I deliberation you should power it," the caller said.

The constabulary serviceman asked if the caller meant that radical weren't flowing well, that "they get crushed and fall, and past there's going to beryllium a large accident?"

Yes, the caller responded - "this is truthful chilling close now".

That was the archetypal of astatine slightest 10 calls to constabulary successful the superior Seoul implicit the adjacent 3 hours connected Saturday. But that night, section residents say, the constabulary beingness was wholly inadequate.

Mounting evidence, experts and a bid of authoritative apologies constituent to glaring failures. Local officials and constabulary were simply not prepared for the crowds that had gathered, and struggled to negociate them erstwhile they were there.

Earlier connected Tuesday South Korea's constabulary main said their exigency effect was "inadequate" - the archetypal acknowledgement from officials that they did not bash capable to forestall it.

By immoderate estimates, hundreds of thousands of radical had descended connected Itaewon - fashionable for its nightlife - to observe Halloween. It was a startling fig adjacent for the usually engaged neighbourhood.

Jeong An-sook lives 2 blocks down the main thoroughfare successful Itaewon, astir 300 metres from wherever the crush happened. She tried to spell retired betwixt 21:00 and 22:00 section time, but said the assemblage successful her thoroughfare was truthful dense she could not move. Frightened, she retreated to her home.

A edifice proprietor who returned location astatine 22:00 section clip said helium could not adjacent exit from Itaewon presumption due to the fact that it was truthful crowded. So helium went to a antithetic presumption and circled backmost home.

Another woman, a wealth changer who was selling flowers for radical to laic down astatine the makeshift shrine to the victims, said she saw fewer constabulary officers - attempts to organise the assemblage were being made earlier successful the evening by section volunteers, she said, not the police.

She besides said that the section concern relation had requested assistance from the constabulary past week successful dealing with the crowds astatine the weekend, but did not get it.

We present cognize that determination were 2 meetings held by the section council, Yongsan-gu. The archetypal was with the section police, the section subway presumption main and the relation of section businesses connected 26 October. There was a 2nd gathering the pursuing day, conscionable among assembly unit members, to sermon however to grip the Halloween festivities astatine the weekend.

According to the Yongsan territory website, they discussed Covid quarantine measures, inspection of nutrient vendors, information astatine large venues and subway stations, rubbish postulation and amerciable parking. The territory mayor, Park Hee-young, said connected 27 October: "This is the archetypal Halloween successful 3 years without societal distancing. We volition bash everything we tin to guarantee the information of residents arsenic we are acrophobic astir the renewed dispersed of Covid-19, cause incidents and different accidents."

There is nary grounds that anyone raised oregon discussed imaginable assemblage power problems successful either meeting.

Local businesses told the BBC determination had been a Global Village festival earlier successful October, showcasing Itaewon's cosmopolitan character. That was organised by the council, and determination was a prepared assemblage power plan.

But aft the mishap Mayor Park told section media that the Yongsan assembly had done everything it could, but the information that the Halloween celebrations had nary azygous organiser made it antithetic from different events. She has since apologised to the victims and their families.

Even arsenic the blasted crippled among officials continues, the information remains that no-one stopped hundreds of people, mostly successful their teens oregon 20s, from converging successful the sloped alley that night. Once that happened, experts say, what came adjacent was astir intolerable to prevent.

The narrowness trapped them, and the slope meant that erstwhile immoderate fell, it triggered a domino effect connected others. People were besides moving successful respective directions astatine once, jostling and trying to flight the crush.

Police are investigating claims that immoderate members of the assemblage triggered the crush by yelling retired "push, push", but experts accidental that was expected with what they telephone an "abnormal crowd".

Any much than 5 radical per quadrate metre is considered perchance unsafe - and determination were astatine slightest 10 radical per quadrate metre successful that alley, according to Baek Seung-joo, a occurrence information prof astatine Open Cyber University. He says helium made the estimation based connected images and footage.

"Instinctively, successful specified a situation, radical don't assistance each other, they vie and don't travel orders… You can't blasted the young radical who pushed others erstwhile they were nether utmost pressure," helium said. "The authorities are liable for failing to power the assemblage successful advance."

Officials and experts present judge 1 crushed wherefore truthful galore radical thronged that peculiar alley was its proximity to the Itaewon subway station, a spot with precocious ft traffic.

Kwon Seolah, main of the Center for Disaster Safety Innovation astatine Chungbuk University, suggests that officials could person ensured subway trains bypassed Itaewon station, oregon blocked disconnected vehicles from entering the territory to marque much abstraction for pedestrians.

But officials blasted 1 different for that failure. The nationalist constabulary accidental they asked the Seoul City Metro to forestall trains from stopping astatine Itaewon presumption connected Saturday to bounds the crowds. The Metro has denied this, saying it lone received an authoritative petition 1 hr aft the deadly crush had happened.

The Yongsan constabulary person besides said that section businesses asked them not to power the crowds astatine the play to debar reducing their customers; the section concern relation has denied this.

But it seems wide that the constabulary did not undertake adjacent the simplest of assemblage power measures recovered successful different places.

Yet the seriousness of the concern was evident successful that archetypal telephone to constabulary hours earlier deaths were reported.

"No 1 is controlling it close now," the caller said. "The constabulary has to power this. You should fto radical retired archetypal and past fto radical in. People support pouring successful but they can't get out."

Additional reporting by Youmi Kim and Jungmin Choi

The pursuing proposal is from the US Centers for Disease Control.

More generally, assemblage power experts besides counsel radical to effort to enactment upright and reserve their energy.