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Concerned relatives raced to hospitals in search of their loved ones on Sunday as South Korea mourned the deaths of at least 151 people, mostly in their teens and 20s, who got trapped and crushed after a huge Halloween party crowd surged into a narrow alley in a nightlife district in Seoul.
Emergency workers and pedestrians desperately performed CPR on people lying in the streets after the crush in the capital's leisure district of Itaewon on Saturday night.
Those killed or hurt were mostly teens and people in their 20s, according to Choi Seong-beom, chief of Seoul's Yongsan fire department.
The dead included 19 foreigners, he said, whose nationalities weren't immediately released.
Officials say the death toll could grow as 19 people among the 82 being treated for injuries are in critical condition.
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Australia's Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke told Weekend Today the federal government is currently unaware if any Australian citizens were included in the rising death toll.
"It's chilling to see this story as it has come across. Our embassy officials are highly professional and they will be working through and making contact," Burke told Weekend Today.
"The death toll that we are looking at at the moment, it seems fairly inevitable that is likely to rise."
A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson said the embassy is urgently looking into whether any Australians were caught up in the stampede.
"The Australian Government sends its deepest condolences to those affected by this tragic incident," the spokesperson said.
"The Australian Embassy in Seoul is urgently making enquiries with local authorities to ascertain whether any Australians are involved."
Choi Seong-beom, chief of Seoul's Yongsan fire department, said the death toll could rise and that an unspecified number among the injured were in a critical condition following the stampede in Itaewon on Saturday night.
He said that the bodies were being sent to hospitals or a gym, where bereaved family members could identify them.
He earlier said most of the dead and injured are in their 20s.
Seoul's city government said more than 2,000 people have called a city office in nearby Hannam-dong as of midday Saturday, reporting their relatives as out of contact.
CNN Senior International Correspondent Will Ripley told Weekend Today there were more than 1700 response personnel from across the country deployed, including about 520 firefighters, 1100 police officers and 70 government workers.
"We have been here for several hours and the death toll has tripled," he said from Seoul.
Ripley said many victims were in costume at the time, making identifying people difficult.
"The fact that a lot of the victims were in costume adds another heartbreaking layer to all of this," he said.
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"It's making it difficult for these people to be investigated. You have a lot of worried families of the young people. Most late teens, early 20s, according to witnesses, who were here."
The National Fire Agency said in a statement that all of Seoul's available emergency workers have been mobilised.
An estimated 100,000 people gathered in Itaewon, near a former headquarters of US military forces in an area known for trendy bars, clubs and restaurants, for the country's biggest outdoor Halloween festivities since the pandemic began.
The South Korean government eased COVID-19 restrictions in recent months.
One survivor said many people fell and toppled to one another "like dominos" after they were being pushed by other people at a narrow downhill alley near Itaewon's Hamilton Hotel.
The survivor, surnamed Kim, said some people shouted "Help me!" and others were short of breath.
Kim described being trampled by other people for about one-and-a-half hours before being rescued, according to the Seoul-based Hankyoreh newspaper.
Another survivor, named Lee Chang-kyu, said he saw about five to six men start pushing others before one or two began falling one by one at the start of the stampede, according to the newspaper.
The stampede is the biggest disaster since 304 people, mostly high school students, died in a ferry sinking in April 2014.
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The sinking exposed lax safety rules and regulatory failures as it was partially blamed on excessive and poorly fastened cargo and a crew poorly trained for emergency situations.
Saturday's stampede will likely cause public criticism of government officials over what they've done to improve public safety standards since the ferry disaster.
TV footage and photos showed ambulance vehicles lined up in streets amid a heavy police presence and emergency workers moving the injured in stretchers.
Emergency workers and pedestrians were also seen performing CPR on people lying in the streets. In one section, paramedics were seen checking the status of a dozen or more people who lay motionless under blue blankets.
In an interview with news channel YTN, Hwang Min-hyeok, one of the visitors to Itaewon, said it was shocking to see rows of bodies laid down in the alley near Hamilton Hotel.
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He said emergency workers were initially overwhelmed, leaving pedestrians struggling to administer CPR to the injured lying on the streets.
People cried beside bodies, he said.
Another survivor in his 20s said he avoided being trampled as he luckily got into a bar whose door was open at the alley, Yonhap news agency reported.
A woman in her 20s surnamed Park told Yonhap that she and others were standing along the side of the alley while others were caught in the middle.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol issued a statement calling for officials to ensure swift treatment for those injured and review the safety of the festivity sites.
He also instructed the Health Ministry to swiftly deploy disaster medical assistance teams and secure beds in nearby hospitals to treat the injured.
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The Seoul Metropolitan Government issued emergency text messages urging people in the area to swiftly return home.
There were some deadly stampedes in South Korea in the past.
In 2005, 11 people were killed and around 60 others were injured in a pop concert stampede in the southern city of Sangju.
In 1992, a teenage girl died and dozens of others were injured during a stampede at a Seoul concert by the US pop group New Kids on the Block.
Source: 9News
