Finnish Karenina Perätalo and her friends had been waiting for the famous Halloween party. However, Saturday night ended in chaos. More than 150 people were trampled to death in the crowd.
10:41•Updated 11:06
Finn Karenina Perätalo went yesterday with his six Finnish friends to the Itaewon district of Seoul, the capital of South Korea, to participate in the famous Halloween party.
– It’s a really big deal here, and we were looking forward to it, Perätalo says by phone from Seoul.
Itaewon’s Halloween was celebrated for the first time in three years without pandemic restrictions, which probably also got people moving.
As soon as they arrived at Itaewon subway station, the group of friends noticed that there was a huge crowd there.
– It took us 15-20 minutes just to get up the stairs from the station to the street, he describes.
After eating, Perätalo and his friends headed to the bar street, which became the scene of the disaster that same evening.
When they reached the bar street, the group tried to reach a restaurant, but nothing came of it because of the crowd.
– It was absolutely shocking. We couldn’t control where we were going, Perätalo describes the events of Saturday evening.
In the middle of the bar street, the police stopped the crowd and told them to go back.
– At that point, the chaos just started. We had to look very carefully where we were stepping. It was known that if you fall, you can’t get back up.
There were up to 100,000 people there
According to current information, more than 150 people died in the crowd, most of them young adults.
South Korean authorities have promised to thoroughly investigate the disaster, which is one of the biggest accidents in the country’s history.
According to some reports, the authorities were not prepared to send enough police to the area, even though a large crowd was expected.
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More than 150 people were trampled to death at a Halloween party in South Korea – including 19 foreigners