“people were pushed against the sidewalk”

From witness stories to the Halloween drama in the South Korean capital Seoul, it becomes clear how people were completely trapped in the extreme crowd. Too many people have tried to squeeze into the back streets of Itaewon’s entertainment district.

Dutch Tim van Riel studies in Seoul and lives on a side street where people were oppressed en masse. He was having a Halloween party at home with friends.

“First evening, around eight o’clock, the street was already very busy. We had invited some people and said: be careful, it’s super crowded. Everyone came as a group because it’s almost impossible to do it just once it was.”

As Van Riel gradually learns that it’s nearly impossible to get anywhere, he and his friends decide to stay home and not go to a bar or club.

Another witness, Raphael Rashid, told the BBC he was in the entertainment district from 7pm local time. “It quickly became clear that there were so many people. More than I had ever seen here in Itaewon.”

“By 10pm it became clear that something was happening, that it was getting out of hand. The crowd was so big that people were pressed against the sidewalk. People were being pushed onto the street, into the traffic.”

Rashid describes how he heard more and more police, fire trucks and ambulances. “Nobody knew exactly what was going on. The agents were standing on top of their service vehicles desperately asking people to leave the area as soon as possible.”

A witness told CNN: “I saw people going to the left and I saw people going to the opposite side. The people in the middle got stuck. They had no way to communicate. They couldn’t breathe.”

When Van Riel goes to drop some people at home later in the evening, he sees the consequences:

According to Van Riel, there should never have been so many people in the area. “You have all these little alleys here and there were hundreds, maybe thousands, of people pressed together. I think that’s the main reason it went so badly. Too many people went through those narrow streets.”

The student compares the situation on the street with a festival “where you all have to go through an exit. There was pushing and pulling”.

BBC reporter Hosu Lee was in Itaewon shortly after the drama. He still saw thousands of people in the streets, many policemen and several lifeless bodies under the blue sheets in the main street.

“A lot of young people especially gathered here tonight to celebrate in the clubs, in their masquerade costumes. The people I see now are upset and sad and it’s still a bit chaotic.”