A mass of mostly young people celebrating Halloween festivities in Seoul became trapped and crushed as the crowd surged into a narrow alley, killing at least 149 people and injuring 150 others in South Korea’s worst disaster in years.
Emergency workers and pedestrians desperately performed CPR on people lying in the streets after the crush in the capital’s leisure district Saturday night.
Chief of Seoul’s Yongsan fire department, said the death toll could rise further and that an unspecified number among the injured were in critical condition.
An estimated 100,000 people had gathered for the country’s biggest outdoor Halloween festivities since the pandemic began.
The South Korean government eased COVID-19 restrictions in recent months.
