Halloween Party in Itaewon

Halloween Party in Itaewon

By Melisa

Right on Saturday night (29/10/22) people in South Korea celebrate Halloween in the Itaewon district. The first time Halloween celebrations returned after three years previously shackled by COVID-19. As the night progressed, the number of people attending the Halloween celebration that night grew, reaching 100,000 people. It was unexpected that the celebration, which was supposed to be fun, turned into a deep sadness because of the many injuries, disappearances and even death.

Reporting from Reuters, Sunday (30/10) Several witnesses described the crowds in Itaewon becoming increasingly unruly as it approached late at night. The incident occurred around 22:20 (1320 GMT). Hundreds of people were crammed into the narrow alley and didn't move until emergency workers and police came down.

There was an eyewitness named Moon Ju-young (21) who revealed that the conditions before the raid had been chaotic. The police had difficulty anticipating the crowd at the event. The crowd reached 10 times compared to usual. "At least more than 10 times busier than usual," he said.

Even in several posts on social media, the police and medical personnel had difficulty giving CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) so they asked the people there to do it. You can imagine how chaotic the Halloween night atmosphere was at that time.

The large number of people who collapsed due to tightness in the crowd so that they experienced cardiac arrest.

Eyewitnesses also said that a clash in the middle of the crowd was the trigger for the Itaewon tragedy. Not only eyewitnesses, many who witnessed party goers using drugs. The witness also saw the police secure a lot of drug evidence.

“We came here around 10pm, then we saw like a scene from a movie in front of the hotel there, like things that happened during the war. It does happen. They did CPR here and there and people rushed in because nothing could be controlled. Everything is completely out of control," witness Park Jung-hoon (21) told Reuters.

Until now, the authorities have received reports of 151 deaths, 355 people missing, and at least 82 people injured. The authorities are still continuing to investigate the exact cause of this case. From this case, the Itaewon police team has identified six suspects. South Korean President Yook Suk Yeol then criticized the police for being slow in responding to this case from public reports. The special investigation division of the South Korean police has been looking for the cause of the Halloween tragedy in Itaewon by narrowing the investigation to the police.

The National Police Agency formed an investigation team to search a total of 55 places related to the Halloween tragedy in Itaewon. The offices of Yoon Hee Keun, head of the National Police Agency, Lee Im Jae, former head of the Yongsan Police Station, and Kim Kwang Ho, head of the Seoul Metropolitan Agency, also entered into the search which was stopped after the Halloween tragedy in Itaewon.

The identification of these six suspects included the former Youngsan police chief, Ryu Mi Jin, and Lee Im Jae who had responsibility for the situation in the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency at the time of the Itaewon tragedy. However, there was some criticism from the public that the investigation only targeted officials of lower rank.