The Big Story: South Korea calls for 24 to be charged over deadly crowd crush

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Catch the latest news reports on The Big Story, The Straits Times’ weekday online news programme.

A South Korean panel referred 24 officials to prosecutors to face charges of professional negligence resulting in death over a crowd crush incident at a nightlife district in Seoul last October, which left 158 people dead.

A special police investigation panel said on Friday that officials from the police, local district office, fire department and Seoul metro government had failed in their responsibilities to prevent a man-made disaster, which was one of the country’s deadliest civilian incidents in its postwar history.

In other stories, Japanese prosecutors have indicted the man suspected of killing former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Tetsuya Yamagami, who had undergone psychiatric review for more than five months, was charged on Friday with murder and violating gun laws.

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