Seoul - South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol declared a period of national mourning on Sunday after a Halloween crush killed 153 people in a packed nightlife area in Seoul while shocked family members collected bodies, parents searched for children and a country sought answers on Sunday.

Yoon expressed condolences to the victims, mostly teenagers and people in their 20s, and his wishes for a speedy recovery to the injured.

“This is truly tragic,” he said in a statement. “A tragedy and disaster that should not have happened took place in the heart of Seoul last night.”Seoul officials urged families and friends to report Itaewon visitors as missing if they could not be reached. More than 3,000 such missing person reports have been filed to date, they said.

A huge crowd celebrating in Itaewon surged into an alley, killing at least 153 people, most of them in their 20s, emergency officials said, adding the death toll could rise.

Police estimate some 100,000 people gathered in Itaewon, a district in central Seoul known for its nightlife, on Saturday. At around 10:40 p.m. the crowd surged into a narrow, uphill alley, leaving people stuck there for about an hour and a half. Among the huge crowds jammed into the alley, some people who could not get out were suffocated to death.

Rescue efforts continued into the night. Footage that has emerged shows first responders performing CPR on partiers unconscious on the bare ground while music blares from the bars and nightclubs.

Just a few blocks from Itaewon at around 3 a.m., people still dressed in costumes who were able to flee the horror were trying to grab a cab.

“I had no idea what was going on until the police came,” said a woman in her mid-20s. “I was totally on the other side of the street. I learned about what happened as the police told us to leave.”

Survivors who sustained injuries were sent to different hospitals all across the city after emergency rooms of the nearest hospitals reached capacity. Medics warned those who were not immediately hurt to seek medical attention in case of symptoms such as a stomachache.

The bodies of some of the deceased had to be placed in gyms that were turned into emergency morgues while forensic officers worked to identify them.

In an address to the nation on Sunday, President Yoon Suk-yeol called the crowd crush the night before a “tragedy, and a disaster that should not have happened.”

He said that South Korea would go into national mourning until the country recovers from the tragic incident.

Sending prayers for the victims and their families, he vowed to strengthen initiatives to prevent a repetition and, in the meantime, deliver support for survivors.

https://cnewsliveenglish.com/news/22279/halloween-seoul-59-dead-150-injured-sm