SEOUL: Shocked family members collected bodies, parents searched for children and a country sought answers on Sunday after at least 153 people were crushed to death when a crowd in South Korea surged in an alleyway during Halloween festivities.

President Yoon Suk-yeol declared a period of national mourning and designated Seoul’s popular Itaewon district a disaster zone after the Saturday night disaster.

“This news came like a bolt from the blue sky,” said a father who burst into tears as he collected his daughter’s body from a morgue in the nation’s capital.

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.

Shehbaz Sharif expresses grief over tragedy

The partiers, some still in their teens and many in Halloween costumes, were ready to enjoy the bars, nightclubs and restaurants where the revelry routinely spills over into narrow and often steep side streets. Instead, the street became filled with people crying for help, while emergency workers desperately sought to free trapped bodies and perform CPR on people splayed across the debris-littered ground.

At the scene, Choi Sung-beom, head of the Yongsan fire station, told a briefing the dead included 22 foreigners.

Families and friends desperately sought word of loved ones at community centres turned into facilities for missing people.

At least 90pc of the victims had been identified by midday, with delays affecting some foreign nationals and teenagers who did not yet have identification cards, the Interior Ministry said.

Makeshift memorials began appearing near the site, with onlookers leaving flowers and notes.

President Yoon expressed condolences to the victims and his wishes for a speedy recovery to the many injured in one of the South Korea’s worst disasters and the world’s worst stampedes in decades.

“This is truly tragic,” he said in a statement, vowing an investigation into the cause of the disaster. “A tragedy and disaster that should not have happened took place in the heart of Seoul last night.”

South Korean tech and mobile game firms, including Kakao and NCSOFT, pulled their Halloween promotions after the tragedy, while amusement park Everland cancelled Halloween-themed events. Many regional governments and organisations have cancelled or reduced festivals and other celebrations.

APP adds: Prime Minister Muha­mmad Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday expressed his grief over the tragic deaths in a stampede in Seoul, South Korea.

The prime minister also expressed condolences to the people and the government of South Korea.

On his Twitter handle, the prime minister posted, I am saddened at the tragic deaths in a stampede in Seoul. Our thoughts & prayers are with the government & people of South Korea.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2022