Itaewon Halloween tragedy: South Korea mourns the victims
SEOUL: Wreaths of white flowers and condolences were laid at memorial altars, and shops hanging condolence messages closed their businesses in Seoul’s Itaewon district on Monday, as South Korea mourned its deadliest death in a stampede.
Mourning altars laden with white chrysanthemums were also opened across the country to allow people to burn incense and pay their respects to those killed in Saturday night’s stampede that left at least 154 people, mostly in their 20s, dead and 33 others seriously injured.
President Yoon Suk Yeol was among the first to pay his respects to the victims, Yonhap news agency reported.
Dressed in black, Yoon and his wife Kim Keon Hee visited the altar set up in Seoul Plaza in front of City Hall, laid flowers and bowed their heads in prayer.
Prime Minister Han Duck Soo and Seoul Mayor Oh Se Hoon also paid their respects at the altar.
The tragedy occurred Saturday night when a large group of Halloween partygoers filled a narrow 3.2-meter-wide alley in the entertainment district of Itaewon, Seoul.
The incident saw the deadliest in South Korea’s history and the country’s worst disaster since 2014, when the Sewol ferry sank off the southern coast, killing 304 people, mostly high school students.
A total of 26 foreign victims including five from Iran, four each from China and Russia, two from the United States, two from Japan, and one each from France, Australia, Norway, Austria, Vietnam, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Sri Lanka, according to officials.
Among the dead were a junior high school student and five high school students, all from Seoul, according to the education ministry.
Five other junior high or high school students were injured and two of them are being treated in hospital.
A total of 116 others suffered minor injuries.
source – BERNAMA
