Police received 11 reports of dangerous crowds in Itaewon in the four hours before the tragedy.
The growing demand for Korean police explain why they are less active despite receiving multiple emergency calls about crowd danger up to four hours before more than 150 people were killed in a Halloween crowd.
Records of emergency calls sent to police and other documents show that in the four hours before Saturday night’s spike in crowds, police received 11 reports of dangerous crowding in the Itaewon nightlife area.
Police responded to four of the 11 reports by deploying officers to locations to disperse crowds, South Korea’s official Yonhap News Agency reported on Wednesday.
After disbanding, the officers returned to other duties and no action was taken in the event of the remaining seven emergency calls, according to Yonhap.
“A police order ‘Code 0’ calling for the fastest possible response was issued for one of the 11 reports while the second highest ‘Code 1’ was in place for seven others, but police officers The police did not take appropriate action,” the news agency reported.
Record of emergency calls alerted in clear conditions of the ongoing situation in the 3.2 meter wide alley in the Itaewon area, where 156 people died after crowds skyrocketed stuck the mostly young revelers began to fall and pile on top of each other. More than 150 others were injured, of which 29 are still in serious condition.
The first to submit a report Four hours before the tragedy prompted police action and crowd control, Yonhap reported.
“I feel like I’m almost crushed here because everyone keeps going up even though I can’t go down anymore…. I could barely get out, but the police needed to control the area because the crowd was so large,” according to an excerpt of the emergency report published by Yonhap.
(LEAD) (News Spotlight) Police are under fire for lax response to emergency calls hours before Itaewon crushes https://t.co/FcnrtCnVTK
– Yonhap News Agency (@YonhapNews) November 2, 2022
Police deployed to the scene but “closed the case without concrete action”, the news agency said.
According to Yonhap, a second report was received 90 minutes later informing police that “there were people who fell and were injured because there were too many people”.
Other reports to the police, more than an hour before the tragedy happened, convey the urgency of the situation: “We are on the verge of a terrible accident due to the huge crowd”, and another, “I was almost crushed to death”.
Yonhap said the National Police Agency voluntarily released transcripts of police reports from the night of the accident to show goodwill “to get to the bottom of the truth”.
Police response ‘insufficient’
One the investigation into the police handling of the Halloween night tragedy The investigation is likely to turn into a criminal investigation if police officers are found to have acted negligently, Yonhap said.
South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Wednesday said police needed to explain their actions, Reuters news agency reported.
“The police must conduct a thorough check and provide a clear and transparent explanation to the public,” Han said at the start of a televised disaster task force meeting.
Officials from South Korea’s opposition Democratic Party on Wednesday also called on both police and government officials to be held accountable for public safety errors that led to the deadly event.
A presidential official also told Yonhap on Wednesday that President Yoon Suk-yeol was angered by police inaction in responding to 11 calls and reports of dangerous crowding in Itaewon.
On Tuesday, South Korea’s National Police Commissioner General Yoon Hee-keun said he feels “unlimited public safety responsibility for this accident”.
The police commissioner acknowledged that police had received numerous reports about the “severity” of the situation before the tragedy and that the handling of the information was “incomplete”.
South Korean Interior Minister Lee Sang-min and Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon also apologized.
Halloween in Itaewon is not an official event and has no central organizer, which means that authorities are not required to establish or enforce formal safety procedures.
