by South Korean police released transcripts of emergency calls made in the hours and minutes leading up to the Halloween crowd surge that killed 156 people in Seoul, in which panicked revelers warned of impending disaster.
As anger escalates over the nation’s worst tragedy in nearly a decade, police said an initial investigation uncovered many urgent calls from members of the public warning of the danger coming to Itaewon, with officers failing to manage calls effectively.
Transcripts released Tuesday showed that, in the first of 11 phone calls – made at 6:34 pm, nearly four hours before the fatal stampede – a panicked citizen said: “[It] It seems you can be crushed to death with the people coming up here while there is no room for the people coming down.
“I was barely able to leave, but there are too many people – it looks like you should come and check it out.”
Asked by the police officer if they meant that people could “crush and fall, and then there will be a big accident,” the caller replied in the affirmative, adding, “It’s so chilling right now.”
Survivors and bereaved relatives said there were not enough police officers or crowd control measures deployed to handle the crowd of 100,000 that gathered to celebrate Halloween for the first time since the Covid-19 restrictions. have been revoked.
A band of senior officials apologized profoundly on Tuesday, with Seoul mayor crying openly and National Police Chief Yoon Hee-keun saying he felt “a heavy responsibility” for “inadequate” crowd control in the popular. Itaewon nightlife district.
Police intervened in response to only four of 11 emergency calls received before the situation became fatal, a police official told reporters.
While large numbers of rescuers were eventually mobilized to help, eyewitnesses said it was nearly impossible for ambulances and rescuers to move through the crowd, and survivors described being trapped under crushing bodies for up to 90 minutes.
Most of the 156 people who died in the alleyway near Itaewon’s Hamilton Hotel were in their 20s to 30s, and most suffered cardiac arrest due to asphyxiation, officials said.
Police transcript of an emergency call at 10:11 pm, less than 20 minutes before the death crush began, notes that screams could be heard on the phone as the caller warned: “[People] will be crushed to death here. It is chaotic.
Almost two hours earlier, a separate member of the audience had warned: “People are falling in the streets, it looks like there could be an accident, it looks very dangerous.”
As the transcripts were released, it wasn’t immediately clear why police officers weren’t deployed in seven of the 11 calls, or what security measures were taken by those who were.
“Those things are all under inspection now, so it’s hard for me to answer this point,” a National Police Agency official said.
The transcripts appear to confirm witness accounts, who reported seeing some policemen directing traffic on the main road but few or no officers in Itaewon’s busy pedestrian alleys and side streets.
There were 137 officers deployed to monitor the Halloween holidays on Saturday, a little more than in the pre-pandemic years, police said, admitting their main target in Itaewon had been crime police and the illicit use of drugs rather than crowd control.
This figure also pales in contrast to the 7,000 officers said to have been sent to the scene of the anti-government protests elsewhere in Seoul that day.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who visited the scene on Sunday, complained at a cabinet council meeting on Tuesday that the nation does not have sufficient research on crowd management, calling for the use of drones and others. technologies to be used in the development of an effective strategy.
When the police began investigating how many people were killed in the disaster and whether their own response was flawed, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said the investigation will cover even if responses from government agencies were appropriate.
Mr. Yoon, the police commissioner, said on Tuesday that investigators “will conduct swift and rigorous inspections and intensive investigations on all aspects, without exception, to explain the truth of this incident.”
Nathan Taverniti, an Australian whose friend was killed in the mob, accused the disaster of “government mismanagement” and an inadequate police presence.
He said he hadn’t sensed the danger until people nearby unsuccessfully tried to help the women who had fallen to their feet – at which point he had lost his three friends in the huge crowd.
He recalled trying to grab what he thought were his friends’ hands between the bodies starting to accumulate but being forced to let go after being crushed by the enormous weight of falling people, shouting in vain to nearby bars of open doors to relieve crowds.
Several police officers arrived after about half an hour as bystanders helped pull the injured out of the mass of bodies, with other officers eventually appearing later, he said.
The 24-year-old discovered one of his friends among the rows of unconscious bodies lying on the sidewalk, and later found his other two friends being treated at the hospital.
“I believe 100% that this incident is the result of government mismanagement and lack of capacity, because I know the Halloween event has always been so big in Itaewon,” Taverniti said.
“If the government knows there will be so many people there and there will be roadblocks, there should be enough police and emergency services waiting already.”
Additional reports from agencies
