South Korea police chief says response to Halloween crowd crush was insufficient

SEOUL - South Korea’s police chief said officers in the field did not do enough to prevent the

weekend’s deadly crowd crush

despite numerous calls to an emergency line ahead of the incident warning that masses of people were growing to dangerous levels.

Mr Yoon Hee-keun, commissioner-general of the South Korean National Police Agency, told a news briefing on Tuesday multiple calls came into the country’s 112 emergency line, warning the authorities of the “seriousness at the scene” in the Itaewon nightlife district in Seoul, where thousands were packed into alleyways and narrow streets.

“If you look at the contents of the calls, these were urgently informing of the danger of an incident as large crowds gathered before the incident occurred,” Mr Yoon said. “Nevertheless, it is judged that the response in the field handling the 112 calls was insufficient.”

South Korea has launched a full-scale investigation into the incident where at least 156 people were killed in the country’s deadliest civilian crowd crushes. Those killed were trapped in a 3.2m-wide alley that connected a main street in the district to an area with restaurants, bars and nightclubs. 

“In order to clarify the truth of this case and establish responsibility, we will promptly and strictly conduct intensive inspections and investigations in all areas without exception,” the police chief said.

Local newspapers, including the Chosun Ilbo, said 137 officers were on the scene on Saturday night for Halloween festivities that attracted about 100,000 people. Most of the officers were there mainly for crime prevention. 

Interior Minister Lee Sang-min, who has fuelled public anger by saying that more police and firefighters would not have prevented the disaster as he warned against politically motivated criticism, has apologised.

Mr Lee issued a statement on Monday saying he regretted his comment and would focus on finding the cause of the incident.

President Yoon Suk-yeol, who put in place a week-long mourning period soon after the deaths, called on the government to come up with crowd control systems for events like the Halloween festivities in Itaewon that do not have any specific organiser but draw masses of people. 

Most of the victims were in their 20s and 30s, and 101 women were among the dead. At least 26 foreigners were killed. Maeil, a South Korean business newspaper, said it was the biggest loss of life among foreigners in the country since 2007, when a fire in an immigration office killed 9 people.

Experts say the density of people packed in the narrow and restricted alley may have reached a level that made such a disaster almost inevitable. Witnesses told local media that as people squeezed into the tiny space, some began to fall, causing others to tumble and pile into one another.

In Itaewon and near Seoul City Hall a few kilometres away, a steady stream of people brought flowers to memorials for the victims. The sense of loss has been amplified as TV, newspapers and social media share stories of the victims, most of whom died from asphyxiation as their breath was squeezed out of the body in the crowd crush.  BLOOMBERG, REUTERS