South Korea's Halloween crush

South Korea's parliament has voted to impeach the country's interior minister on Wednesday over a Halloween crowd crush in Seoul that killed more than 150 people, the first such effort to remove a cabinet minister.

Interior Minister Lee Sang-min has come under pressure to resign following heavy criticism over his handling of the October 29, 2022 disaster, when scores of young costumed partygoers, mostly women in their 20s, were killed in the popular Itaewon nightlife area.

Lee will be suspended from official duty following the impeachment motion -- which passed 179-109 along party lines in the opposition-controlled parliament -- until the country's Constitutional Court rules on the matter. — AFP

South Korean police blamed negligence and planning failures for last year's Halloween crowd crush in Seoul that killed more than 150 people.

Scores of young costumed partygoers, mostly women in their 20s, died in the disaster on October 29 in the capital's popular Itaewon nightlife area.

A special team that spent months combing through evidence and interviewing officials, said at the end of its probe that there had been massive planning and response failures -- but stopped short of blaming any top government or national policy agency officials.

"Organisations that are legally obligated to prevent and respond to disasters -- police, district offices and Seoul Metro -- did not establish safety measures in advance or came up with poor plans," Sohn Jae-han, the team's head, told reporters.

"Appropriate measures were not taken even after receiving rescue requests" on the day of the disaster, he said. — AFP

South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo vows on Wednesday to hold police accountable for Seoul's deadly Halloween crowd surge, after a log of emergency calls showed authorities were slow to respond.

The crush in the narrow alleyways of the Itaewon entertainment district on Saturday killed 156 people, mostly costumed young party-goers looking for a night of post-pandemic fun.

The first emergency call was made at 6:34 pm, a nervous caller warning that police needed to control the crowd before the crush of people turned deadly. — AFP

Seoul's interior minister on Tuesday apologizes for a fatal Halloween crowd surge that killed 156 people, the first top official to do so after one of the country's worst-ever disasters.

"I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere apologies to the public as the minister in charge of the people's safety for this accident," Lee Sang-min says before bowing his head before lawmakers and cameras. — AFP

Follow this page for updates on the deadly crowd surge at the first post-pandemic Halloween party in Seoul's popular Itaewon nightlife district.

Photo courtesy of AFP/Albert Retief