On Saturday — in what appears to be one of the deadliest disasters in South Korea since 2014 — nearly 150 people were killed in a crowd crush during Halloween celebrations in Itaewon, the first large-scale partying for the holiday since the pandemic began.
The event can be described as a crowd crush or surge, but not a stampede, said G. Keith Still, a crowd safety expert and visiting professor of crowd science at the University of Suffolk in England. A crush or surge happens when people are packed together in a confined space and there’s movement such as pushing that causes the crowd to fall over. Essentially, Still said, a “domino effect.”
Michelle Ye Hee Lee
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