FALSE POLICE REPORTS ON CROWD CRUSH NIGHT

[Anchor Lead]

Now turning to updates on the investigation into the Itaewon tragedy. On the day of the tragedy, the police sent 12 reports of the incident to the presidential office and the interior ministry. However it has been found that the police made false reports such as falsifying when former Yongsan Police Station chief Lee Im-jae arrived at the scene. It says he arrived in 2 minutes after the tragedy occurred, contrary to what he publicly said.

[Pkg]

On the day of the fatal Itaewon crowd crush, Former head of Yongsan Police Station Lee Im-jae arrived at the local precinct police office at around 11:05 p.m., 50 minutes after the disaster occurred.

[Soundbite] Lee Im-jae(former Yongsan Police Station chief (Nov. 16)) : "I didn't receive a single report. I became aware of the incident at around 11 p.m."

However it's been found the police falsified the time of his arrival several times in their report made to the presidential office and the interior ministry. This is the very first report related to the tragedy issued by the public order monitoring room at the National Police Agency at 12:05 a.m. The papers outline what measures were taken from 11 to 11:53 p.m. but there is no mention of the Yongsan police chief. In an updated second report that came out an hour later, Lee is mentioned as having arrived at the scene at 10:17 pm and commanded onsite operations such as preventing safety accidents. This means he arrived at the site just 2 minutes after the crowd crush occurred, obviously a false claim. Such false reports were conveyed to the presidential office and other agencies repeatedly for a total of 9 times through 12:44 p.m. on October 30. In their 12th updated report, the final version, the police only then revised the whereabouts of the Yongsan police chief saying that he gave orders via radio and was not present on site. But even the revision was not accurate because it put Lee's commencement of communication 17 minutes earlier than the actual time. These discrepancies have fueled speculation that the police were focused on fabricating reports in the immediate aftermath of the crowd crush.

[Soundbite] Youn Kun-young(Parliamentary probe committee (DP)) : "At the busiest time when victims' bodies were gathered and the injured were sent to hospitals, the police were fabricating information. It's totally outrageous."

An investigation appears to be necessary into false police reporting and whether there was any systematic collusion in the process.