Local Police Chief Jailed For 3 Years Over Deadly S. Korea Crowd Crush: Yonhap

Seoul, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 30th Sep, 2024) A South Korean court handed a three year jail term Monday to a former Seoul district police chief over a crush that killed more than 150 people, the Yonhap news agency reported.

Tens of thousands of people -- mostly in their 20s and 30s -- had been out on October 29, 2022, to enjoy the first post-pandemic Halloween celebrations in the popular Itaewon nightlife district.

But the night turned deadly when people poured into a narrow, sloping alleyway between bars and clubs, the weight of their bodies and a lack of effective crowd control leading to scores of people being crushed to death.

Former Yongsan district police chief Lee Im-jae was found guilty of failing to prevent the crush -- the first police officer to be convicted for their direct role in the disaster.

"It was foreseeable that there would be a large crowd of people in the sloped alley of Itaewon that would lead to serious danger to life and physical safety on the Halloween weekend in 2022," the Seoul Western District Court said in the guilty verdict, Yonhap reported.

Another former officer in charge of the Yongsan police emergency centre was sentenced Monday to two years in jail on the same charges.

The court is also set to deliver another verdict later in the day to local official Park Hee-young, head of the Yongsan Ward office, on similar charges.