Seoul crowd crush: local police offices raided in investigation

The raids came a day after the agency acknowledged Seoul police failed to act for hours despite receiving at least 11 emergency calls from pedestrians warning about a swelling crowd of Halloween revellers getting out of control ahead of the crush on Saturday in a narrow alley near Hamilton Hotel.

Local officials and police face questions about why they did not employ crowd control measures or sufficient personnel in the bustling nightlife district despite anticipating a crowd of 100,000 people following the easing of Covid restrictions.

The national police chief, Yoon Hee-keun, also acknowledged that its initial investigations found that police officers failed to effectively handle calls notifying authorities about the potential danger of the crowd gathering in Itaewon.

As of Wednesday, 156 people were confirmed dead and 157 were being treated for injuries after they were trampled in the crowd surge in a narrow alley that runs between the hotel and a dense row of storefronts.