(HD) Itaewon, Seoul, Korea

On the night of 29 October 2022, a crowd crush occurred during Halloween festivities in the Itaewon neighborhood of Seoul, South Korea. At least 159 people were killed and 196 others were injured. The victims were mostly young adults.
The crowd crush is the deadliest disaster in South Korea since the sinking of MV Sewol in 2014 and the largest mass casualty event in Seoul since the Sampoong Department Store collapse in 1995. It is the deadliest crowd crush in the country, surpassing a 1959 incident at the Busan Municipal Stadium in which 67 people were crushed to death. A special police team, after completing weeks of investigation, concluded that a lack of safety precautions and other omissions contributed to the high number of deaths.
History of the district
Looking east down World Food Street during COVID-19 restrictions (November 7, 2020)
A pub street in the westernmost part of Itaewon, 2015
"Foreigners only" notice at the Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon, 2007
The recent history of the Itaewons district of Seoul's Yongsan District is closely linked to the US military base Yongsan Garrison established in 1945. With the large number of bars and brothels, the area has been coded as a dangerous place for many Koreans. Twenty years after the Korean War (1950-1953), Itaewon became a shopping district. The district became gentrified, and in 2013 the US military moved its base with 17,000 soldiers to southern Seoul. Itaewon also became something of a home for the queer movement and was considered to be as open to foreigners as it was to Koreans. However, while representative commercial buildings had been erected in Itaewon, the area's characteristic of narrow streets had remained. Today, the district primarily attracts Koreans and international tourism, while earlier more than two-thirds of the gastronomic customers were Americans. Itaweon also became popular with people escaping the pressures of South Korean society, which was shaped by Confucian hierarchies and conformist views. Beginning around 2010, the concept of Halloween took on a life of its own in South Korea and has been further developed there, with consumption and marketing patterns playing an important role for retailers. The activities in Itaweon were captured in the 2020 K-drama Itaewon Class. During the COVID-19 pandemic Itaewon was a source of a major disease cluster traced back from over 130 confirmed cases. Authorities threatened those who attended the Halloween celebrations 2021 with harsh penalties if they violated COVID-19 social distancing rules.
Initial situation
The Itaewon district, located in central Seoul, is a popular location for nightlife gatherings, with trendy nightclubs, restaurants and bars. In the evening approximately 100,000 people, mostly in their teens and twenties, attended the Halloween festivities in Itaewon. It was the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic that Halloween festivities could be attended without social distancing and without mask-wearing being required.
Due to the growing popularity of Halloween celebrations and the potential for resulting accidents, authorities were concerned years before the disaster. In an internal document from 2020, which became known about opposition MPs, the police warned of possible deaths from imminent crowding.
However, a Seoul based newspaper reported that only 137 police officers were on duty at Itaewon, far fewer than the about 1,300 officers assigned for a BTS concert for 55,000 that occurred earlier in the month. Reportedly four days before the disaster the Itaewon police substation had requested backup due to the anticipated crowds, although a police notice two days beforehand did not mention the danger of crowds. It instead planned for sex crimes, theft, traffic congestion and drug and alcohol abuse.
Main venue
In the south: "Itaewon Road" (Itaewon-ro 이태원로) with Itaewon Subway Station (Itaewon-yeog 이태원역) From there, the "Bogwangstreet" (Bogwang-ro 보광로) branches off to the south To the north: "World Food Street" (Itaewon-ro 27-ga-gil 이태원로27가길) In between: side street with the main scene (red) of the accident at the Hamilton Hotel
External image
image icon Street view of an alley where the crowd crush occurred
The area is characterized by very narrow streets and alleys without escape routes. The street in which the crush happened is connected to Itaewon-ro, the main street of the district; the lane slopes upward from Itaewon-ro and eventually meets with another street. This caused people to be packed and pushed downward along the narrow segment of the street. People at the top of the slope fell onto those below. The lane is only about 45 metres (150 ft) long and 3.2 metres (10 ft) wide, which impeded emergency services attempting to enter the street. The bottom of the alley measured only 3.2 metres, after a 10-meter-long iron temporary wall was built along the Hamilton Hotel about ten years ago.