POLICE & FIRE DEPT. UNDER INVESTIGATION

[Anchor Lead]

This time, news related to the investigation into the Itaewon crowd crush. A special police team, having analyzed articles seized through raids, is now focused on summons. A number of police, fire and local district officials have been called in for questioning but no high ranking officials are yet included. Regarding the police, investigators are looking into suspicions that higher-ups may have been involved in the deletion of an intelligence report at Yongsan Police Station. As for the fire department, communication records from the night of the disaster are under scrutiny.

[Pkg]

"Huge crowds are expected as this is the first Halloween since pandemic restrictions have been lifted." This is an excerpt from a document titled "risk analysis on public security" drafted by the Yongsan Police Station 3 days prior to the tragic crowd crush. The report voices concern over throngs of people spilling onto roads and the danger of traffic accidents. The officer who wrote this report posted it on the police internal network and as is standard practice, the document was automatically deleted after 72 hours. However the original file was even erased from that officer's own computer 4 days after the Itaewon tragedy. The probe team believes there may have been wrongful orders or persuasion in the process of the file's deletion, and has booked for investigation two senior intel officials at Yongsan police. Circumstantial evidence also suggests the interference by figures of higher authority, further up on the command chain, as investigation expands. One police official testified that an intel director at Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency gave the order via online messenger to delete the file. Meanwhile investigation also continues into fire officials. Radio communication records from the night of the disaster show. A command team chief at Yongsan Fire Station issued the first order related to the crowd crush at 10:24 p.m. 18 minutes later, a level one response alert is activated following reports that 15 people were receiving CPR at the site. Then at 10:50 p.m., an officer requests the alert be raised to level two but the command team chief responds 10 minutes later, saying it appears the situation will end soon. The issuance of level two alert was ordered by the Seoul Metropolitan Fire Headquarters at 11:09 pm. Based on these records, the investigation team suspects fire authorities were slow in their response. In its defense, the fire department said that onsite officials gave orders as they went from one alleyway to another, citing access difficulty, and added that it was impossible for those on the site to accurately assess the whole situation.

[Soundbite] Kim Joo-hyeong(Korean Gov't Employees Union) : "I believe the response this time was much faster than past disasters. But after such an event, fire officials inevitably feel dejected."

Employees at the 119 emergency hotline center have also been questioned as well as workers at the Yongsan district office regarding possible negligence on the part of local authorities.