FEATURE - First Post-COVID Halloween In Seoul Turned Deadly Amid Absence Of Proper Crowd Control

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th November, 2022) Young partygoers who survived the tragic stampede that killed at least 156 people during Halloween celebrations in Seoul on Saturday shared with Sputnik their ordeal and the factors that may have contributed to the shocking tragedy.

Zara Lily worked as a school teacher in the United Kingdom for a few years before she decided to move to South Korea in late 2019, hoping to take advantage of the booming education industry in the East Asian country.

"For the past seven years, I had been building my career. I thought if I had some experience abroad, I can build my career more. In the UK, I taught at school. I'm a very good teacher. I actually wanted to open my own business in (South) Korea, where there's a very big academy business. Some of my friends have started businesses in (South) Korea. I also wanted to do that," Lily told Sputnik.

Unfortunately, Lily arrived in South Korea a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc all over the world. Just like many neighboring countries in East Asia, South Korea introduced stringent social distancing measures to curb the spread of the virus.

While the rest of the world started to lift COVID-related restrictions earlier this year, many strict measures such as mask mandates remained in place in South Korea.

"In South Korea, we actually had the COVID restrictions for a very long time. Longer than any other Western countries that I know. Like the UK, they took their masks off maybe two years ago. We still have to wear masks. This is the first Halloween that we could be free. Last year, we still had COVID restrictions," Lily said.

After dealing with these restrictions for almost three years, young people in South Korea finally had a chance to have fun and party with friends, like their peers in the rest of the world, for this year's Halloween.

As a result, a large number of partygoers, including many who lived in nearby cities, flocked to Seoul on Saturday to join in the celebrations expected to take place in Itaewon, a famous nightlife hotspot.

"This year, everyone knew it's going to be crowded. All of our friends were saying that so many of our friends who live outside of Seoul are coming to Seoul. Even friends from Busan came up to Seoul to spend the weekend there. That's why there were over 100,000 people there," Lily said.

As an unprecedented number of young people decided to come to Itaewon to enjoy their first Halloween without COVID-related restrictions, little did they realize how dangerous the overcrowded alleyways in the area could be.

With a group of about 20 friends, Lily and her boyfriend Jinhyeong Yun arrived in Itaewon around 4 p.m. on Saturday.

"We arrived at Itaewon at 4 p.m. It was me and some friends. And I went with my boyfriend. The plan was that when we arrived, we would go to a cafe. But even at 4 p.m., it was very crowded. Eventually, we found some seats at a Starbucks at 5 p.m. We started to get ready for our costumes. The other people at the cafe were also getting ready. They were applying their makeup and changing their clothes," she said.

Lily and her group of friends left the Starbucks and went to Thursday Party, a popular pub, at around 8 p.m. When the group decided to try to go to another club, Runway, an hour later, Lily started to notice the size of the crowd in the area.

"As we were making our way to Runway at 9 p.m., it became even more uncomfortable to move through the crowd compared to 8 p.m. By 9 p.m., it was significantly more crowded. We thought: 'Once we got to Runway, let's just stay there,' because we didn't want to go back to the crowd again,'" Lily said.

When Lily and her friends came out of Runway at around 11 p.m. that night, she realized something had happened because she could hear the sirens of emergency vehicles in the area.

"From the accounts I've heard, they said that the incident was reported around 10:30 p.m. It means around 10:30 p.m., people started to fall on top of each other, and that's also when the emergency services were called," she said.

However, as there was still a large crowd in the area, Lily and her friends could not see exactly what was happening at the time.

"By 11 p.m., we left Runway and we were very close to the location (of the stampede). When we joined the crowd, the crowd was not moving. At this point, there was no movement in the crowd, because there were so many people and the incident (stampede) had happened. But the people who were behind us, there were some people who were pushing the crowd," Lily recalled.

Many party-goers became increasingly impatient around her.

"I even heard some people were saying in English: 'Let's go! Let's go!' They were chanting and pushing. My boyfriend heard some people were saying in Korean: 'We're strong! We can push more!' They were chanting: 'Push! Push! Push!' I think people were under the misunderstanding that the crowd just stopped for no reason," she said.

What happened next made Lily sense danger around her.

"Because there were so many people very close to each other, when there were pushes, we became like a sea wave. At one point, I felt myself go all the way forward and then the wave came back, as waves do. I became very scared. I actually moved out of the way to avoid the waves. I just turned to the side," she said.

The Runway club is located about 500 feet from the entrance of the narrow alleyway where the stampede took place. This alleyway was one of the narrow inclines connecting Itaewon-ro 27 ga-gil, a popular street where most of the bars and clubs can be found, with the road where the subway station is located.

The crowd on the bar-lined street became impatient, as many did not understand that a horrifying tragedy had just taken place right beside them.

"We were behind and we didn't know what happened. But by 11 p.m., we saw some flashing lights. We thought something happened. There were a lot of rumors in the crowd. There was a rumor that there was a small explosion. There was another rumor about a gas leak. There was another rumor saying that some foreigners were giving candy which had drugs inside. My boyfriend got a text message from someone in a different district saying: 'don't eat sweets from foreigners,'" Lily said.

Even when they saw the first bodies of stampede victims being pulled out, Lily and her friends did not realize how serious the situation was.

"Suddenly, the police came and asked everyone to make a path. That's when we saw the first set of bodies on the stretchers. But nobody knew what happened, because all the bodies didn't have blood on them. The injuries were internal injuries and suffocation. We thought there was a gas leak or they were exposed to something," she said.

Melissa Altun, a 19-year-old student from Germany, was sitting with a group of friends on the terrace of Bronz, a bar� located right at the entrance of the alleyway where the stampede happened.

"Our table was at the terrace which is why we were literally in front of everything. We were not injured at all, since we had a table reserved. They were looking for people that know how to practice CPR. One of my friends went to help and gave 5-7 victims CPR, but none of them survived. Most of them were already not breathing anymore. She came back in tears. We were almost all crying that night because we literally saw the people dying in front of us. It was terrible. Mentally, we are all not okay, but we are slowly getting better because we have each other," Altun told Sputnik in an email, as she said she was still so traumatized by the experience that she could not talk about it over the phone.

About 20 minutes later, when more ambulances, firefighters and other emergency vehicles arrived in the area, local authorities began to take measures to control the crowd.

"Suddenly, dozens of ambulance vans came, the firefighters came, and all the emergency services came. Then tried to control the crowd at that point. I think they told the bars not to let anyone leave, so they could control the crowd in the streets. Some of the friends actually were stuck in the bars and they could leave for about two hours," Lily said.

Lily and her friends decided to wait in a tiny space in the streets until the crowd dispersed slowly. They waited until 5:30 a.m. the next morning for the subway to open.

"That's actually a normal thing. For example, when people go clubbing, that's actually what happens because the last subway is at 11:30 p.m.. If you miss that subway, you could call a taxi. But there were so many people, it's impossible to call a taxi. Your next option is, you can wait for 1 a.m. when the night buses start. But that's only in Seoul. The night buses will take you around Seoul at 1 a.m. But some of my friends came from outside of Seoul. They have to use the subway. We didn't want to leave our friends. We said that we would wait for them until 5:30 a.m.," she said.

In addition to the excitement of the first Halloween without COVID-related restrictions, both Lily and Altun pointed out that a popular South Korean television series entitled "Itaewon Class" was the key reason behind the area becoming a top destination for those celebrating this holiday.

The iconic scene highlighting the Halloween celebrations at Itaewon comes in the second episode of "Itaewon Class," which streamed in early 2020 on Netflix globally. It shows the main protagonist of the series, Park Sae-ro-yi, traveling on a bus ride back to Seoul after completing his 2-year prison sentence. He opens a letter from his high school sweetheart, Oh Soo-ah, during the ride.

"I live in a neighborhood called Itaewon. I wasn't sure what to say, so I decided to tell you about this neighborhood," Oh writes in the letter, as the screen cuts to the scene where Park arrives at the Itaewon subway station.

"Have you been to Itaewon before? Each year on October 31, people enjoy a festival from the United States here. Apparently, they try to comfort the spirits of the dead and ward off evil spirits. People are dressed in strange costumes and bizarre makeup, so evil spirits won't do them harm. This day is called Halloween. A lot of people come to Itaewon to celebrate Halloween. A lot of grown-ups enjoy this festival in funny costumes," Oh's narration continues, while Park walks through the massive crowd celebrating Halloween wearing all kinds of costumes.

Oh goes on to explain how Itaewon reminds her of their memories together.

"Besides this festival, Itaewon is still an attractive place. There're pretty buildings and a diversity of people from across the world. It feels like you're in a foreign country. And everyone there looks so free. It's a place where you can enjoy a walk. It feels like the whole world is condensed into this street. And I fell in love with this place. When I walk on this street, I miss you a lot. The hill we ran down together on the day of the exam. The lake where you asked for my number. And your shy smile. I want to see it again. I'll look forward to that day," her letter continues, while Park enjoys the street performances.

All of a sudden, a young girl wearing a mask looking like a ferocious rabbit sees Park in the crowd, comes rushing toward him and gives him a big hug, catching him by surprise.

"Who are you? Who is this?" a shocked Park asks while being hugged by the girl with the scary rabbit mask.

When the girl removes her mask, it is his high school sweetheart, Oh. The reunited young couple goes on to celebrate Halloween together in various bars in Itaewon.

"The beginning of the tv drama actually starts at Itaewon and it's a Halloween theme. The main character is in a Halloween party in Itaewon. That's when the Halloween Itaewon party started, because of that TV drama. It became popular. Foreigners like it, because it's multicultural. It feels like home for them. At the same time, Korean people like it too because they like to be in an open-minded environment," Lily explained.

Nevertheless, the popularity of Halloween parties at Itaewon made it all the more important for local authorities in Seoul to introduce crowd control measures to avoid tragedies like the stampede from happening, Lily argued.

"My boyfriend did some research on this. In 2019, Halloween became a big thing in Itaewon. But there were a lot of safety measures put in place. My boyfriend said there was a one-way system in Itaewon where you could only go one way down the streets. In 2019, there were many police officers that were controlling the crowd. But this year, I didn't see anyone. We walked around 2-3 times. There was no crowd control. When the pushing happened, there was nobody to tell them to stop," she said.

Following an initial investigation, South Korean national police chief Yoon Hee-keun admitted that police officers failed to respond effectively after they received urgent calls from the public warning them about the potential danger in the crowd gathering at Itaewon.

As for Lily, her experiences on Saturday at Itaewon have traumatized her so much that she is scared to take the subway in Seoul.

"I'm actually very traumatized about crowds now. When I take the subway, I'm really nervous. I said to myself, if someone tries to push me on the subway, I'm going to scream. I'm going to say:' Do you remember what happened at Itaewon? Don't push!' I'm so traumatized, because that's what they do," she said.