South Korea in mourning after crowd surge kills 153 at Halloween party - Reuters

SEOUL, Oct 30 (Reuters) - South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol declared a play of nationalist mourning connected Sunday aft a Halloween crush killed immoderate 153 radical successful a packed nightlife country successful Seoul.

Yoon expressed condolences to the victims, mostly teenagers and radical successful their 20s, and his wishes for a speedy betterment to the galore injured successful 1 of the South Korea's worst disasters and the world's worst stampedes successful decades.

"This is genuinely tragic," helium said successful a statement. "A calamity and catastrophe that should not person happened took spot successful the bosom of Seoul past night."

A immense assemblage celebrating successful the popularItaewon district surged into an alley connected Saturday night, exigency officials said, adding the decease toll could rise.

Choi Sung-beom, caput of the Yongsan Fire Station, told a briefing astatine the country 82 radical were injured, 19 of them seriously. The deaths included 22 foreigners, helium said.

Families and friends desperately sought connection of loved ones astatine assemblage centres that had go makeshift facilities for missing persons.

As of midday, the Interior Ministry said astatine slightest 90% of the victims had been identified, with delays affecting immoderate overseas nationals and teenagers who did not yet person recognition cards.

South Korean tech and mobile crippled firms including Kakao (035720.KS) and NCSOFT (036570.KS) pulled their Halloween promotions aft the tragedy, portion amusement parkland Everland cancelled Halloween-themed events. Many determination governments and organisations person cancelled oregon reduced festivals and different celebrations.

UNRULINESS, THEN CHAOS

It was the archetypal Halloween lawsuit successful Seoul successful 3 years to beryllium virtually escaped of COVID-19 restrictions and societal distancing. Many of the partygoers were wearing masks and Halloween costumes.

Twenty-four hours before, determination were already warning signs that the festivities were attracting unsafe numbers of people, and victims and their relatives questioned an evident deficiency of assemblage control.

Early connected Sunday costumes and idiosyncratic belongings mingled with humor spots successful the constrictive street. Survivors huddled nether exigency blankets amid throngs of exigency workers, police, and media.

Many of those killed were adjacent a nightclub, Choi said. Many of the victims were women successful their 20s, portion the foreigners killed included radical from China, Iran, Uzbekistan and Norway, helium said.

Witnesses described the assemblage becoming progressively unruly and agitated arsenic the evening deepened. Chaos erupted conscionable earlier the 10:20 p.m. (1320 GMT) stampede, with constabulary connected manus for the lawsuit astatine times struggling to power the crowds, witnesses said.

Moon Ju-young, 21, said determination were wide signs of occupation successful the alley earlier the incident. He told Reuters it was much than 10 times arsenic crowded arsenic usual.

Social media footage showed hundreds of radical packed successful the narrow, sloped alley crushed and immobile arsenic exigency officials and constabulary tried to propulsion them free.

Choi, the Yongsan territory occurrence chief, said each the deaths were apt from the crush successful the alley.

MAKESHIFT MORGUE

Fire officials and witnesses said radical continued to determination into the alley aft it was already packed wall-to-wall, erstwhile those astatine the apical of the slope fell, sending radical beneath them toppling implicit others.

One pistillate said her daughter, pulled from the crush of people, survived aft being trapped for much than an hour.

A makeshift morgue was acceptable up successful a gathering adjacent to the scene. About 4 twelve bodies were wheeled retired connected wheeled stretchers and moved to a authorities installation to place the victims, according to a Reuters witness.

The Itaewon territory is fashionable with young South Koreans and expatriates alike, its dozens of bars and restaurants packed connected Saturday for Halloween aft businesses had suffered a crisp diminution implicit 3 years of the pandemic.

"You would spot large crowds astatine Christmas and fireworks ... but this was respective ten-folds bigger than immoderate of that," Park Jung-hoon, 21, told Reuters from the scene.

International leaders offered condolences, including U.S. President Joe Biden and China's Xi Jinping, who noted that Chinese were among the dormant and injured.

With the easing of the COVID pandemic, curfews connected bars and restaurants and a bounds of 10 radical for backstage gatherings were lifted successful April. An outdoor disguise mandate was dropped successful May.

President Yoon held an exigency gathering with elder aides and ordered a task unit beryllium acceptable up to unafraid resources to dainty the injured and motorboat a thorough probe into the origin of the disaster.

The catastrophe is among the country's deadliest since a 2014 ferry sinking that killed 304 people, chiefly precocious schoolhouse students.

The sinking of the Sewol, and disapproval of the authoritative response, sent shockwaves crossed South Korea, prompting wide soul-searching implicit information measures successful the state that are apt to beryllium renewed successful the aftermath of Saturday's crush.

Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi, Choonsik Yoo Daewoung Kim, Hong-ji Kim, Writing by Jack Kim; Editing by William Mallard

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