Of the dead, 97 were female and 54 were male
Seoul:
At least 151 people were killed and over 100 were injured in a stampede at a prominent market in South Korea's capital Seoul, where a massive crowd had gathered for Halloween.
Here are the top 10 updates on South Korea's Halloween Stampede
- The crowd surge and crush happened in central Seoul, where local reports said as many as one lakh people, mostly in their teens and 20s, had gone to celebrate Halloween, clogging the area's narrow alleyways and winding streets.
- President Yoon Suk-yeol declared a period of national mourning Sunday, saying the government would pay for the medical care of those injured and the funerals of those who died.
- The government "will thoroughly investigate the cause of the incident and make fundamental improvements to ensure the same accident does not occur again in the future," the President said.
- The stampede, the deadliest in South Korea's recent history, happened in a narrow downhill alley, with eyewitnesses describing scenes of panic as people "fell like dominoes".
- Nineteen foreigners were among those killed in the deadly stampede at a Halloween event, the fire department officials said. Of the dead, 97 were female and 54 were male, they added.
- Police and firemen were seen trying to revive people who'd gone into cardiac arrest amid chaos in narrow streets.
- "People were layered on top of others like a tomb. Some were gradually losing their consciousness while some looked dead by that point,"an eyewitness told news agency AFP.
- This year's Halloween event was the first since the pandemic started in 2020 at which South Koreans have not been mandated to wear face masks outdoors.
- External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar expressed his condolences over the tragedy, assuring India's solidarity with the grieving nation, saying he was "deeply shocked" by the loss of young lives.
- US President Joe Biden and newly-appointed prime minister of UK, Rishi Sunak, also took to Twitter to express his grief over the tragic crush.
