By comparability, almost 7000 law enforcement officials have been despatched to a different a part of the South Korean capital on Saturday to observe duelling protests, which drew tens of hundreds however nonetheless fewer folks than flocked to the favored nightlife district of Itaewon.
Even the duty drive created to research why the gang surged, with 475 members, is thrice bigger than the element assigned to crowd management.
As South Korea mourns, officers are going through robust questions on preparations for the celebrations and calls for for accountability within the wake of the nation’s worst catastrophe in almost a decade.
The nationwide authorities has insisted there was no technique to predict the gang would get uncontrolled.
Specialists disagree. Deploying so few law enforcement officials, they mentioned, confirmed officers have been poorly ready regardless of figuring out forward of time that there can be an enormous gathering following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions in current months.
On high of assigning extra personnel, police and officers within the Yongsan district, which governs Itaewon, ought to have pedestrianised some streets and brought different measures to ease the crowding in slender lanes just like the one the place the deaths occurred, specialists mentioned.
As a substitute, the 137 officers in Itaewon have been assigned to observe crime, with a selected deal with narcotics use, which means that for all sensible functions “nobody was taking care of pedestrian security”, mentioned Kong Ha-song, a catastrophe prevention professor at South Korea’s Woosuk College.
Authorities have come beneath related criticism in nationwide media and on social networks. The headline of an editorial within the Hankyoreh newspaper on Sunday described the tragedy as “all too avoidable”.
The paper mentioned its reporting confirmed {that a} pedestrian received knocked down by a crowd in Itaewon a day earlier than Halloween festivities – though nobody was harm.
Saturday’s deaths occurred in a downhill alley working between a dense row of retailer fronts and the landmark Hamilton Resort. The trail grew to become clogged by an enormous throng of partygoers earlier than a few of them fell and toppled over “like dominoes” in accordance with witnesses.
Emergency staff have been so overwhelmed by the variety of folks mendacity immobile on the bottom that they requested pedestrians to assist them with CPR.
However Choi Sukjae, an emergency drugs specialist and chief spokesperson of the Korean Emergency Medical Affiliation, mentioned CPR, which ideally must be administered inside a handful of minutes, would not have made a lot of a distinction in lots of circumstances because the paramedics have been delayed attending to the scene as a result of the realm was so packed.
Kong, the catastrophe prevention professor, mentioned extra police and authorities staff ought to have been known as on to observe potential bottleneck factors.
He steered that the crush might have been prevented if authorities had enforced one-way strolling lanes, blocked entry to some slender pathways, and briefly closed Itaewon’s subway station to forestall an extreme variety of folks shifting in the identical route.
Officers might have additionally briefly closed Itaewon’s principal street to automobiles, as they did in the course of the annual Itaewon International Village Competition earlier in October, thereby giving folks extra room to unfold out, Kong mentioned.
Lee, the city planning professor, criticised Inside and Security Minister Lee Sang-min, who claimed, with out elaborating, that having extra police and hearth division personnel on the bottom would not have prevented the tragedy.
When requested concerning the variety of officers assigned, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Company mentioned 137 was nonetheless greater than it despatched in 2020 and 2021, excluding models particularly assigned to virus management measures. Police and authorities officers have acknowledged this 12 months’s crowd was greater – however it was not clear by how a lot.
Kong added that the dearth of a central organiser on Saturday – when younger folks flocked to bars and night time golf equipment to rejoice Halloween however there was not one particular occasion promoted – might have contributed to the tragedy.
“Our nation often does an excellent job in following the handbook and sustaining crowd management at occasions the place there is a particular organiser,” he mentioned.
“However officers are sometimes not sure what to do and even do not care about occasions that are not created by a particular organiser … though it is these occasions that often require a more in-depth watch.”
Hong Ki-hyeon, a senior official with the nationwide police company, acknowledged that drawback throughout a information convention on Monday, saying police shouldn’t have a longtime technique to take care of such gatherings.
“In occasions like festivals which have a particular organiser, discussions are made between associated municipalities, police, hearth departments and medical specialists who put together and cooperate beneath totally different roles,” Hong mentioned.
“That’s what we lacked concerning this accident.”
Yongsan district refused to reply questions on preparations. District mayor Park Hee-young as a substitute mentioned in an announcement on Monday that her workplace was deploying “all administrative sources” to help the injured and households of the victims.
Within the two earlier years, the district’s preparations for the Halloween festivities have been centered on stopping the unfold of COVID-19 amongst partygoers.
Staff toured bars, eating places and nightclubs to observe whether or not they have been abiding by social distancing guidelines, and checkpoints have been established in crowded areas the place public staff and volunteers took the temperatures of partygoers.
Saturday’s crush was the nation’s largest catastrophe since 304 folks, principally highschool college students, died in a ferry sinking in April 2014. The sinking uncovered lax security guidelines and regulatory failures.
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South Korea has a protracted historical past of lethal crowd crushes and stampedes, though none as lethal as Saturday’s. In 2005, 11 folks have been killed and dozens have been injured in a pop live performance throughout a crowd crush within the southern metropolis of Sangju.
In 1960, 31 folks died after being crushed on the steps of a practice station as massive crowds rushed to board a practice in the course of the Lunar New 12 months holidays.
