South Korea’s police chief has said crowd control during the Etown crackdown was “inadequate” – the first admission by authorities that they did not do enough to stop it.
Amid growing calls for accountability, Yoon Hye-kyun said the police’s response was “disappointing” and that he felt “boundless responsibility for public safety” over what happened.
He vowed to conduct a thorough investigation.
155 people died and 152 were injured in this fatal incident.
It happened on Saturday night as crowds gathered in a street in Etown, a popular nightlife district in Seoul, to celebrate Halloween without restrictions for the first time since Covid.
Mr Yoon said the police had received several calls before the accident, informing them of the seriousness of the situation, but there was no response. The first call to South Korea’s emergency number came in at 18:34 local time, and 10 more calls came in over the next three and a half hours, Seoul police said.
The police chief said police would conduct a “quick and thorough investigation” to determine whether appropriate action was taken after receiving the call, and whether the officers reacted appropriately.
Mr Yoon’s comments follow growing public demands for accountability. Authorities initially tried to portray it as an accident that could not easily be blamed on anyone.
Police previously said they had deployed more officers to Halloween festivities this year than they did to pre-Covid parties. A Congressman on Tuesday also pointed out that since the party had no central organiser, there were no special requests from the police to control the crowd and provide security.
“It is impossible to demand legal responsibility, because no one was responsible,” Yoo Sang-bum, who is with the ruling People’s Power Party, said on local radio.
