‘MANMADE DISASTER’

Officials Scrutinized Over Minimal Crowd Control in Seoul Halloween Disaster

Some 7,000 police officers were directed toward another area of the capital the night of the tragedy.

South Korean officials are facing widespread criticism for their preventive policing strategies after more than 154 people died during a massive Halloween celebration in Seoul. Just 137 Seoul police officers were assigned to monitor the capital city’s nightlife district over the weekend, where 100,000 partygoers surged through Itaewon’s claustrophobic, neon-lit alleys for Saturday’s festivities. Meanwhile, some 7,000 officers were distributed that night in another area of the capital to monitor protests, which had reportedly drawn a fraction of the participants. “We understand that it was not a problem that could have been solved by deploying police or firefighters in advance,” South Korean Interior and Safety Minister Lee Sang-min said on Sunday, justifying the “normal” level of officers assigned to Itaewon by describing the crowd as not unusually large. Other officials, including the director of disaster and safety management for the ministry, claimed that there were no “guidelines or a manual” for such a tragedy, according to CNN. Locals are calling the fatal congestion a “manmade disaster” in which “no one was looking after pedestrian safety,” reported the AP.