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Tag: Seoul stampede

  • Lee Jihan, K-Pop singer and actor, dead in South Korea crowd crush – National | Globalnews.ca

    Lee Jihan, K-Pop singer and actor, dead in South Korea crowd crush – National | Globalnews.ca

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    A South Korean singer and actor is among the more than 150 people dead after a crowd surge during Halloween festivities in Seoul, South Korea.

    Lee Jihan was celebrating Halloween in the Itaewon neighbourhood on Saturday when chaos ensued on the intensely overcrowded streets, causing a crowd crush. He was 24 years old.


    Lee Jihan, who was killed during a crowd surge in Seoul on Oct. 29, 2022.

    935 Entertainment

    The crowd surge — which killed more than 153 people, including 26 foreigners as of Monday morning — is the worst disaster in South Korea’s recent history.

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    South Korean police investigate deadly Halloween crowd surge in Seoul

    Lee’s agencies, 935 Entertainment and 9Ato Entertainment, both confirmed the star’s death in a public statement. With plain text on a black background, the statement, which is in Korean, read: “We are sad to deliver such news today, but Lee Jihan has passed away in the crush in Itaewon last night.”


    Click to play video: 'Canadian among those injured in Seoul crowd surge'


    Canadian among those injured in Seoul crowd surge


    “We would like to express our deepest condolences to his family, who are saddened by the sudden tragic news, also to everyone who loved him,” the statement continued.

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    Lee’s agency also said he was “a sweet and warm friend to all” who had a “bright smile” and “passion for acting.”

    Lee rose to popularity after he appeared as a contestant on the Korean TV program Produce 101, a singing competition where hopefuls battled for one of 11 spots in a new Korean boyband. He auditioned with a cover of EXO’s Overdose.

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    He also performed INFINITE’s Be Mine alongside several other competitors on Produce 101. 

    Though Lee did not win the competition, he garnered a considerable fanbase after the show.

    Lee later used his new popularity to earn an acting role in the K-Drama Today Was Another Namhyun Day.

    Saturday’s disaster was concentrated in a sloped, narrow alley, with witnesses and survivors recalling a “hell-like” chaos with people falling on each other like dominoes. They said the entire Itaewon area was jammed with slow-moving vehicles and partygoers clad in Halloween costumes, making it impossible for rescuers and ambulances to reach the crammed alleys in time.

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    How and why do crowd surges turn deadly? Experts explain

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    Halloween festivities in Itaewon have no official organizers. South Korean police said Monday they don’t have any specific procedures for handling incidents such as crowd surges during an event that has no organizers.

    More than 80 per cent of the dead were in their 20s or 30s and 11 were teenagers, the South Korean Interior Ministry said.

    The crowd surge was South Korea’s deadliest disaster since 2014, when 304 people, mostly high school students, died in a ferry sinking.

    According to the website AllKPop, Lee’s funeral will take place on Tuesday.

    — With files from The Associated Press 

    &copy 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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    Sarah Do Couto

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  • Seoul stampede death: Here’s how a chic party turned into a nightmare

    Seoul stampede death: Here’s how a chic party turned into a nightmare

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    On Saturday night, a deadly stampede in South Korea’s nightlife district of Itaewon killed at least 153 people and injured over 100 more. Emergency personnel and pedestrians desperately performed CPR on people, most of whom were in their twenties, who were lying in the streets following the crush.

    According to South Korea’s Interior and Safety Ministry, 56 men and 97 women were among the 153 people killed in Saturday’s apparent crowd surge in Seoul’s popular nightclub district Itaewon.

    Choi Seong-beom, chief of the Yongsan fire department in Seoul, said the death toll could rise further and that an unspecified number of those injured were in critical condition.

    It was unclear what prompted the crowd to pour into the narrow downhill alley near the Hamilton Hotel, a popular party destination in Seoul.

    At first, the crowd appeared to be in good spirits and calm, but then a commotion broke out, and people began to push and press into one another.

    Partygoers were jammed so closely together in the small streets that it was difficult to move around even before the chaos erupted. According to one survivor, they were trapped for about an hour and a half before being rescued.

    According to local media reports, one of the survivors saw five to six men push others before one or two fell. According to another survivor quoted by the Associated Press, people fell and toppled one another like “dominos,” and many were out of breath.

    A woman in her twenties named Park told Yonhap news agency that she and others were standing along the alley’s edge, while those caught in the middle had no way out.

    Just on the edge of the chaos, as the number of victims quickly outnumbered the paramedics, they were asking bystanders to provide first aid.

    Images from the scene showed a large number of bodies spread out on the pavement and covered in bed sheets, as well as emergency personnel in orange vests loading up ambulances with more bodies on stretchers.

    Itaewon, known for its hip nightlife and chic restaurants, witnessed people wailing beside the bodies of their friends dressed up for Halloween on Saturday night. Authorities are investigating what prompted the crowd to pour into the narrow downhill alley near the Hamilton Hotel.

    Covid dealt a serious blow to Itaewon businesses, and Saturday’s Halloween festivities were a beacon of hope for many in the aftermath of the pandemic.  

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