South Korea confirms 153 casualties in Halloween stampede, 13 victims to be identified

Confirming the death toll of the Halloween tragedy that occurred in the Itaewon district of Seoul, South Korea on Saturday night, the Interior and Safety Ministry said on Sunday that 153 people, including 56 men and 97 women, died in the apparent crowd surge. The Ministry also revealed the age demographics of the victims, and said that four of the victims were adolescents, 95 were in their 20s, 32 people were in their 30s and nine were in their 40s. 13 of the deceased victims are yet to be identified by their age, the Ministry said. 

Lee Sang-min, the South Korean Minister of Interior and Safety, claimed that the deadly crowd surge was not a problem that could be solved in advance by boosting the deployment of local authorities to the scene. “We understand that it was not a problem that could have been solved by deploying police or firefighters in advance,” he said, adding that there had been “various disturbances and demonstrations” in several other regions of Seoul on Saturday.

The Minister further justified that a "normal" level of security was present at the scene because the gathering in Itaewon was not unusually large. “It was expected that many citizens would gather so a considerable number of police and security forces were deployed to Gwanhwanmun (another area of Seoul),” he said.

Police says nearly all dead victims have been identified

On the other hand, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said in a televised statement, “We will have relevant ministries such as the Ministry of the Interior and Safety conduct emergency inspections not only for Halloween events but also for local festivals and thoroughly manage them so they are conducted in an orderly and safe manner."

Meanwhile, Seoul Metropolitan Police said that it has been able to verify the identities of nearly all victims that were killed in the stampede. It also said that there have been no active searches of missing persons, despite receiving 4,024 reports for the same. The authorities have said that it is believed no one went missing during the stampede, and all the reports helped in the identification of the dead victims. The quick identification process can be attributed to South Korea’s system of issuing national ID cards to citizens aged 17 and above, which has made it easier for authorities to identify the bodies of victims.