‘100,000 people in 4-metre-wide alley’: How South Korea stampede took place

The toll of the Halloween stampede in South Korea rises to 151 as more bodies are being recovered from the tragic site of the narrow alley in a nightlife area of Seoul.

Most of the dead were in their 20s and the authorities have ruled out any involvement of drugs in the incident. Follow updates of the South Korea Halloween tragedy

Here’s how the tragedy unfolded in South Korea | 10 points

1. Hundreds of people were packed in a narrow alley in Itaewon near the Hamilton hotel. This was the first Halloween event after the Covid restrictions were lifted.

2. According to South Korean media, the first emergency was reported at around 10.22pm.

3. Over 100,000 people were in the alley and a huge crowd was reportedly coming out of the hotel and also from the Itaewon subway station.

4. Korean media reports claimed that the crowd surged when a ‘celebrity’ appeared in one of the establishments around the alleyway

5. Reports said the alleyway where the stampede took place is four metres in width, not spacious enough to even fit a Sedan properly.

6. As the crowd continued to push, people started falling on top of each other.

7. People started showing signs of suffocation and cardiac arrest.

8. Ambulances had a tough time reaching the victim moving through the crowds. Police were standing on the top of cars telling people to leave the area and to make way for ambulances.

9. Revellers were still dancing and singing on the road blocking the way of the rescue operations.

10. As ambulances could not reach the spot immediately, emergency medical technicians began administering CPR to victims.