South Korean president, Yoon Suk-yeol, has declared a time of national mourning to commemorate the deaths of dozens of people in a stampede that occurred Saturday night in the heart of Seoul, where various Halloween parties were taking place.
Yoon lamented in a speech broadcast from the presidential office, in which he conveyed his condolences to the relatives of the victims saying “It is a tragedy and a disaster that should not have happened,”
The president also declared emergency work as the highest priority for now.
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153 people have died so far and 82 people have been injured, 19 of them critically. According to the Spanish Embassy in Korea, the majority of the casualties are young adults in their 20s, and 20 of the dead were foreigners, none of whom were Spanish.
During a speech to the nation, the South Korean president promised an “in-depth investigation” and stressed that “the most important thing is to determine the causes of the accident and prevent similar ones.”
The event is the deadliest in the country since the Sewol ferry capsized in 2014, an accident that killed 304 people, mainly high school students.
Local media report that a large crowd began to push in a narrow, sloping alley near the Hamilton Hotel. According to witnesses quoted by South Korean media, several people fell at the top of the slope, causing a chain collapse.
More than 400 emergency workers and 140 vehicles from all over the country, including all available personnel from Seoul, have traveled to the Itaewon neighborhood to treat the victims.
