After the stampede in Seoul that killed more than 150 people, the government demanded an explanation from the police for their serious failure to deal with the crowds. “The government will hold those responsible strictly to account once the investigation is complete,” Prime Minister Han Duck Soo told a cabinet meeting today.
Transcripts of emergency calls show that many people had warned of a catastrophe hours before the mass panic caused by the many participants in the Halloween celebrations – and that people at the scene were growing increasingly desperate.
Police chief publicly apologized
Prime Minister Han stressed that the callers needed “extremely urgent help or police intervention”. The Ministry of the Interior announced a reform of emergency call centers. The government will learn from the disaster and “will do its best to create a safer society,” said a ministry official.
Interior Minister Lee Sang Min apologized for the accident in parliament on Tuesday. South Korea’s police chief and the mayor of Seoul also publicly apologized.
On Saturday night, at least 156, most of them young people, had died in the first Halloween celebrations in Seoul’s popular nightlife district of Itaewon since the start of the CoV pandemic, including one Austrian. Several others were injured. A full investigation into the accident has been launched. Investigators searched several police buildings today.