Tag: Seoul

The death toll could go even higher with many more people still in the hospital in critical condition:

As of Sunday evening, officials put the death toll at 153 and the number of injured people at 133. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety said the death count could further rise as 37 of the injured people were in serious conditions.

Ken Fallas, a Costa Rican architect who went Itaewon with expat friends, used his smartphone to film video showing unconscious people being carried out from the alley as others shouted for help. He said the loud music made things more chaotic.

“When we just started to move forward, there was no way to go back,” Fallas said. “We didn’t hear anything because the music was really loud. Now, I think that was one of the main things that made this so complicated.”

Ninety-seven of the dead were women and 56 were men. More than 80% of the dead are in their 20s and 30s, but at least four were teenagers. At least 20 of the dead are foreigners from China, Russia, Iran and elsewhere. Two of the dead are U.S. citizens, the U.S. Embassy in Seoul confirmed in a statement Sunday.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but no word yet if the two Americans were USFK service members or not. This report says that USFK has not reports of any casualties though they are still accounting for personnel. Once again condolences to all the friends and families impacted by this tragic disaster.

This article correlates with other reports I have read on social media that people at the top of the narrow alleyway adjacent to the Hamilton Hotel started pushing people down. This alleyway slopes uphill this caused a domino effect of people falling downhill on top of those below them:

Witnesses and survivors on Sunday said an overnight stampede that killed at least 151 people occurred after a massive group of people celebrating Halloween surged into a narrow downhill alley and were instantly pushed down by others.

The deadliest stampede in South Korea’s history happened Saturday night in the alley near Hamilton Hotel in the famous nightlife district of Itaewon after tens of thousands of people visited the area for Halloween.

A total of 151 people, including 19 foreigners, have been killed and 82 others injured, fire authorities said, adding the death toll could rise further. 

“People kept pushing down into a downhill club alley, resulting in other people screaming and falling down like dominos,” an unidentified witness wrote on Twitter. “I thought I would be crushed to death too as people kept pushing without realizing there were people falling down at the start of the stampede.”

A woman her 20s said the accident occurred after a massive crowd of people were pushed back and forth for some time, which then led her friend to be pinned down under the crowd.

Another female survivor in her 20s, surnamed Park, said the stampede erupted as people flocked into the small street in a short period of time.

“A short person like me could not even breathe,” Park said. “(I) could survive as I was located on the sideline of the alley. It looks like people in the middle suffered the most.”

Other survivors, meanwhile, blamed the owners of bars and clubs nearby, who allegedly blocked people from escaping from the overcrowded alley.

“It looks like the casualties were more severe as people attempted to escape to nearby stores but were kicked out back to the street because business hours were over,” said the survivor who asked not to be named.

Yonhap

That is pretty horrible that business owners would not allow people to exit the alleyway through their businesses thus further contributing to this disaster. It will be interesting to see if they face any charges of liability.

This is absolutely horrible what happened last night in the Itaewon neighborhood of Seoul:

At least 146 people died and more than 150 were injured in a crowd crush in Itaewon, Yongsan-gu, central Seoul, according to fire authorities at 4:00 a.m. on Sunday. The fire department began to receive reports of patients having difficulty breathing at 10:22 p.m. on Saturday.

Of the 146 people who died, 101 were transferred to the hospital. The remaining 45 bodies were kept on site and later moved to a nearby multi-purpose indoor gymnasium. Identifying the deceased is expected to take some time, according to fire officials. Most of the dead were in their 20s. Officials expect that the number of casualties will continue to rise throughout the day.

Choi Eul-cheon, head of the Yongsan Police’s criminal division, said, “No drug-related reports have been confirmed” in response to a question about whether drugs were involved in the incident.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but rumors being spread was that it was caused by reports that candy filled with drugs was being handed out to people and that a celebrity was at a bar that caused a large amount of people to surge into the alley next to the Hamilton Hotel. There was obviously something going on in that alley to cause so many people to surge into that direction at once. I am sure in the coming days we will find out what happened. Odds are there was plenty of USFK servicemembers at Itaewon last night. No word yet of any of the casualties were US military personnel.

On Twitter there is a lot of videos showing what happened during the stampede and the aftermath. Looking at the videos it appears that most of the victims are young women, which would make sense that they would be crushed in a crowd more easily than larger males. Warning the videos below the fold are graphic.

I am not against the upcoming ban, but I don’t think it is going to do much to clean up air pollution when so much of it is rolling in over Korea from China and their government doesn’t care:

Grade 4 diesel vehicles, the second-lowest in the country’s five-tier emissions standard, will be banned from Seoul’s central areas starting 2025.  
   
In addition, village buses, delivery motorbikes and trucks will all go electric by 2026.  
   
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon unveiled a comprehensive plan to improve air quality of his megacity dubbed Clearer Seoul 2030 on Wednesday. It’s a major part of the Korean capital’s ambition to be one of the top 10 greenest cities in the world. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

More and more people are discovering the shanty town adjacent to the posh Gangnam neighborhood of Seoul:

Jason Basulto, a 27-year-old American tourist, visited Guryong Village, one of the last remaining shanty towns in Seoul, in April this year. He had been curious about Seoul’s not-so-shiny side, like the semi-basement homes featured in “Parasite.”

“Urban slums are visible not only in Korea, but in many other countries, because the wealth gap is a global issue. But the scenery of Guryong Village in the middle of high buildings was striking,” he said.

For those who are interested in social issues, the village could be an interesting place to visit, he added.

It appears so.

On YouTube, there are a number of videos that take viewers on a virtual tour of the village, where rows of ragged shacks stand in contrast to gleaming, high-rise apartment complexes just across the road.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.