Rescue team and firefighters work at the scene where dozens of people were injured in a stampede during a Halloween festival in Seoul, South Korea, October 30, 2022.Rescue team and firefighters work at the scene where dozens of people were injured in a stampede during a Halloween festival in Seoul, South Korea, October 30, 2022.
A further 65 people were injured in the melee in Seoul’s Itaewon district, Choi Sung-beom, head of the Yongsan Fire Station, said in a briefing at the scene. Some witnesses described the crowd becoming increasingly unruly and agitated as the evening deepened. The incident took place at about 10:20 p.m. .
Social media footage showed hundreds of people packed in the narrow, sloped alley crushed and immobile as emergency officials and police tried to pull them free. Fire officials and witnesses said people continued to pour into the narrow alley that was already packed wall-to-wall, when those at the top of the sloped street fell, sending people below them toppling over others.