After the traumatic October 30 crowd crush in Seoul which killed 154 people mostly in their teens and 20s, stories are emerging of those who managed to survive the disaster.
Brendan, an international student who was among the 100,000 people who headed to popular nightclub precinct Itaewon that day, was pushed and shuffled down an alleyway by the surge of Halloween party-goers.
“People were falling in front of me,” he said, per ABC.
“I said to myself to not fall, because if I fall, it’s done.”
But there was nothing Brendan could do. People around him fell and pushed each other in a cascade affect that eventually knocked him down, too.
Brendan was trapped under a mound of human bodies for a whole hour, with another woman between him and the ground. He tried to hold himself up to allow her to breathe.
Emergency services tried to pull him out by his arm, but the downward pressure was too much and he was stuck.
“It was like a nightmare,” he said.
“I just had to keep calm and concentrating on my breathing.”
Juliana Velandia Santaella, a 23-year-old medical student, was separated from her friend and trapped in the crowd.
“At some point, my feet weren’t even touching the ground anymore,” she told Washington Post.
She said people around her were screaming and calling for the police, but one by one they grew limp and silent.
“I thought, ‘Okay, I’m going to be next.’ I really thought I was going to die,” she said.
“I was completely paralysed. At some point, I couldn’t feel my legs. I couldn’t even move my toes.”
Santaella was eventually rescued after a man grabbed her arms and pulled her from the crowd. It took time to regain feeling in her legs, but she was able to walk home.
Hours later, she developed a fever and was diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis: a condition which involves muscle injury and necrosis, AKA cell death.
The condition can be life-threatening because affected muscle tissue releases proteins and electrolytes into the blood that can hurt the heart or kidneys, causing permanent disability and even death.
Santaella is still being treated and will have her kidneys tested later this week. At the time of reporting her leg was swollen, purple, and she was unable to rest her weight on her foot.
A top police official admitted they failed to foresee massive casualties. He said police don’t have a manual for large gatherings that take place with no clear organizer.
But other public safety experts say the gathering’s spontaneous nature shouldn’t be an excuse for inaction.
— NPR (@NPR) October 31, 2022
A young man in his 20s identified as Kim told Hankyoreh newspaper the night was a “Halloween nightmare”. He said he was trapped for an hour and a half before he was rescued.
“I heard voices calling for help, and I saw people who couldn’t breathe,” he said at the time, per Al Jazeera.
“My legs are numb.”
Thai international student Pear managed escape the crowd crush by heading into a bar. When she emerged, she found bodies strewn all over the street.
Desperate, she performed CPR on one woman for 30 minutes but was unable to revive her. She feels wracked with guilt for not being able to save her.
“I’m the only one who held her, but she still died. I want to apologise,” she tearfully told the ABC.
Lee Beom-suk, a doctor who attended the scene and administered first aid to victims, told local broadcaster YTN first responders couldn’t keep up with the sheer amount of victims.
“It’s hard to put in words to describe,” he said, per Al Jazeera.
“So many victims’ faces were pale. I could not catch their pulse or breath and many of them had a bloody nose. When I tried CPR, I also pumped blood out of their mouths.”
20 ppl in Itaewon, Seoul passed away and 80 ppl injured due to a lot of people assembled in Halloween.
I know Itaewon. I worked there 9 years ago. Itaewon is small and crowded place.
Since Govt lift restrictions, they went to Itaewon for the first time since 2019
Rest In Peace pic.twitter.com/9K6L8a69c9— 𝙅𝘼𝙔 𝘾 (@ShutDa_Ur_Mouth) October 29, 2022
The 154 people who died as a result of the crush have been identified, including 23-year-old Australian woman Grace Rached. She was with her friend, survivor Nathan Taverniti, who made a grief-stricken TikTok after he lost her in the crowd. He spent hours searching for her body and slammed police for not responding to calls for help quick enough.
“It was a slow, agonising crush. This crush was not caused by drunk people. It was lack of planning [by the] police force and emergency services,” he said.
“I was there trying to pull people out because there was not enough police officers and nobody was doing anything to make the crowd stop.”
“There were people lying on the ground getting CPR, not by health professionals, by random people, whoever could,” Taverniti said.
“I am sad. I am devastated by the situation which could have so easily been avoided, but nobody would listen.”
Investigations into the Seoul crowd crush have begun, with a taskforce of 475 police officers deployed to figure out what actually happened.
Help is available.
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