SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Seoul police assigned 137 officers to handle a crowd of Halloween revelers anticipated to quantity greater than 100,000 over the weekend — a choice that has come underneath intense criticism following the deaths of greater than 150 folks when the group surged.
By comparability, practically 7,000 cops have been despatched to a different a part of the South Korean capital on Saturday to observe dueling protests that drew tens of 1000’s however nonetheless fewer folks than flocked to the favored nightlife district of Itaewon the identical evening. Even the duty power created to analyze why the gang surged, with 475 members, is extra 3 times bigger than the element assigned to crowd management.
As South Korea mourns, officers are dealing with powerful questions on preparations for the celebrations and calls for for accountability within the wake of the nation’s worst catastrophe in practically a decade.
The nationwide authorities has insisted there was no strategy to predict the gang would get uncontrolled.
Specialists disagree. Deploying so few cops, they mentioned, confirmed officers have been poorly ready regardless of realizing forward of time that there could be an enormous gathering following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions in current months.
On prime of assigning extra personnel, police and officers within the Yongsan district, which governs Itaewon, ought to have banned vehicles from some streets and brought different measures to ease the crowding in slender lanes just like the one the place the deaths occurred, consultants mentioned.
As an alternative, the 137 officers in Itaewon have been assigned to observe crime, with a specific concentrate on 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.
The deaths must be seen as a “artifical catastrophe,” mentioned Lee Changmoo, an city planning professor at Seoul’s Hanyang College.
Authorities have come underneath comparable 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 acquired knocked down by a crowd in Itaewon a day earlier than the Halloween festivities — though nobody was damage.
Saturday’s crowd surge occurred in a downhill alley working between a dense row of storefronts and the landmark Hamilton Lodge. The trail turned clogged by an enormous throng of partygoers earlier than a few of them fell and toppled over “like dominoes,” in accordance with witnesses.
Emergency employees 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, wouldn’t have made a lot of a distinction in lots of circumstances for the reason that 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 employees ought to have been known as on to observe potential bottleneck factors. He recommended 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 stop an extreme variety of folks transferring in the identical course.
Officers may have additionally briefly closed Itaewon’s primary highway to vehicles, as they did in the course of the annual Itaewon International Village Pageant earlier in October, thereby giving folks extra room to unfold out, Kong mentioned.
Lee, the city planning professor, criticized Inside and Security Minister Lee Sang-min, who claimed, with out elaborating, that having extra police and fireplace division personnel on the bottom wouldn’t 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 larger — nevertheless it was not clear by how a lot.
Kong added that the dearth of a central organizer on Saturday — when younger folks flocked to bars and evening golf equipment to have fun Halloween however there was not one particular occasion promoted — might have contributed to the tragedy.
“Our nation normally does a very good job in following the guide and sustaining crowd management at occasions the place there’s a particular organizer,” he mentioned. “However officers are sometimes uncertain what to do and even do not care about occasions that aren’t created by a particular organizer … though it’s these occasions that normally require a more in-depth watch.”
Hong Ki-hyeon, a senior official with the nationwide police company, acknowledged that downside throughout a information convention Monday, saying police wouldn’t have a longtime strategy to take care of such gatherings.
“In occasions like festivals which have a particular organizer, discussions are made between associated municipalities, police, fireplace departments and medical consultants who put together and cooperate underneath totally different roles,” Hong mentioned. “That’s what we lacked relating to this accident.”
Yongsan district refused to reply questions on preparations. District Mayor Park Hee-young as a substitute mentioned in an announcement 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. Employees 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 employees 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.
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 prepare station as giant crowds rushed to board a prepare in the course of the Lunar New 12 months holidays.