QUESTIONS OVER PREVENTION MEASURES

[Anchor Lead]

An estimated 100-thousand people or more gathered in Itaewon on Saturday. Some 130-thousand used Itaewon subway station, more than double the number recorded last year, when COVID-19 restrictions were still in place. It has yet to be found if authorities knew that such a large crowd would attend the event in Itaewon, and if sufficient preparations were done to prevent the tragedy.

[Pkg]

This is what the night streets of Itaewon looked like a year ago on Halloween eve. They were packed even though COVID-19 restrictions were still in place. Some 59-thousand people used Itaewon subway station on that day. On October 29th this year, when the tragedy occurred, the number of passengers at the station more than doubled: 130-thousand.

[Soundbite] (Itaewon Special Tourism Zone Association official(VOICE MODIFIED)) : "More people attended the event than last year, because the mask rule was finally lifted after a long period."

Police expected some 100-thousand people to attend the Halloween festival. Two days before the crowd crush, Yongsan Police Station, which oversees the area, issued a press release. It read, "Nearly 100,000 people are expected to gather in a limited space daily this weekend. This will likely cause inconveniences to the public." However, the crowd turned out to be much larger than initially anticipated. Some eyewitnesses claim to have already sensed something terrible might happen some three hours before the tragedy occurred.

[Soundbite] (Eyewitness A(VOICE MODIFIED)) : "I was nearby at the time and it took me 30-40 minutes to reach the area. It wouldn’t be surprising if someone tripped and fell in that crowd. That’s how bad it was."

[Soundbite] (Eyewitness B(VOICE MODIFIED)) : "I got a feeling policemen were not controlling the crowd because they were unaware of how serious it was. All they did was have pedestrians on the road get back on sidewalks."

It has to be clarified if authorities were prepared enough to oversee a crowd of 100-thousand. Some say subway trains should have skipped Itaewon Station, like during the fireworks festival in Yeouido early this month, in order to prevent crowding. Police did request Seoul Metro to have subway trains skip the station, but it was done at 11:10 p.m., about an hour after the first emergency report. Seoul Metro turned down the request in order to minimize inconveniences to the public, as many people rushed to leave the area by subway.