The title of the thread may be incorrect, as several sources are indicating that people were suffering ‘cardiac’ events and having difficulty breathing, with causes unknown, although people falling down and being hurt in a crush was certainly a contributing factor.
And the above excuses may be just that, to put a better spin, but we’re missing a lot of details so far.
According to Reuters, 146 people have died and at least 150 others were injured. The death toll may get higher.
Another thread here explains that “cardiac arrest” is the initial term they call the deaths until the actual cause is determined.
The video link below is spoilered as it contains distressing video taken live during the incident.
Summary
Here is a video from the scene.
You may note that the Hamilton Hotel on Itaewon-ro is across the street from the fire station. The alley concerned looks like the one next to the hotel going up the hill on the hotel side of the road. The alley next to the fire station goes uphill towards the mosque. You can search Google maps for “Itaewon Incident” to see the exact area.
Any news on what triggered the problem? It seems so strange that people outdoors were so packed that they died of crowding.
I read or heard there was a rumor that a celebrity was spotted up ahead and it started the surge. I didn’t hear which celebrity.
Just a tragic situation. Most of the fatalities are young women.
Nevermmind.
What does the bolded mean in a quote from the New York Times?
Sophia Akhiyat, a 31-year-old doctor from Florida, was led to the alley by a worried police officer some time after 11 p.m. to help those who had been hurt. She saw people marking the dead with makeup, she said, recalling a “pile of humans” at the mouth of the narrow street preventing ambulances from entering the area.
Sounds exactly like what it says, that people were marking those who were dead in a triage situation so medical workers would not waste time on them when they could help the injured.
The various news sites I checked yesterday had a common theme about some pushing. That could be just the normal pushing that goes along with people in a crowd, or it could be some people got into a shoving match. Whatever the initial cause, it turned into a domino effect.
The videos I have seen indicate it was just a typical crush. That is, brought about by too many people in too small an area. I see no reason to attribute any blame to members of the crowd. I strongly suspect this will, like so many similar incidents, prove to be the result of poor design, poor (or totally absent) crowd management (by police/security, not by the crowd itself), and other systemic failures.
But that won’t stop people from trying to blame the crowd. It never does.
ETA: We discussed a similar (albeit smaller scale) tragedy not even a year ago.
What is perhaps most perplexing and worrying, apart from the sheer number of victims here, is that this happened on a public street or alleyway. Which might mean that civil authorities could be implicated for… well, basically, the layout of their city killed people. Or so it would seem. That’s… gonna be hard to overcome.
I’ve been in tightly-packed groups, but nothing like that. I know a guy who was in a crowd pressed against the doors of a concert. He said the pressure of other people physically lifted him off his feet. He couldn’t move his arms. He said he’d never been so scared in all his life.