SEOUL — At east 149 people were killed and another 150 injured after they were crushed in a large Halloween crowd in Seoul on Saturday night, the city’s fire department said, in one of the deadliest peacetime accidents in South Korea’s recent history.
The crowd surge happened during one of the most raucous celebrations of the year in the nation’s capital, where as many as 100,000 people, local news media said, had clogged the narrow streets of the Itaewon nightlife district Saturday evening for Halloween festivities.
Dozens of bodies of victims were first transported to a nearby indoor gymnasium, where families had been gathering overnight. On Sunday morning, gymnasium officials said that those victims had been taken away. At least one police car and one local news station remained at the scene.
Britain’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak, expressed condolences to South Koreans in the aftermath of the deadly crowd surge in Seoul. “All our thoughts are with those currently responding and all South Koreans at this very distressing time,” he
President Yoon Suk Yeol expressed condolences for the victims and his wishes for the speedy recovery of the injured. He said he was setting a period of national mourning and would make dealing with the aftermath a national priority. “In the center of Seoul, a tragedy and disaster occurred that should not have happened,” he said in a Sunday morning address to the public
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