CNN reporter speaks with survivors of South Korea crowd surge

Families in South Korea and around the world are mourning the 154 victims of Saturday night’s crowd crush during Halloween festivities in Seoul. CNN's Ivan Watson has more on the investigation and speaks with survivors. #CNN #News

53 comments

  1. On behalf of me and the Cambodian people, I would like to express my condolences to the Government of South Korea and the Korean people.😭😭😭😭

    1. Yoon Seok-yeol (president) moved to Yongsan out from blue house.. People are dead because the police force is all out to protect Yoon Seok-yeol. If you control the road to be one-way, people won’t die. And if people close the ramp, people won’t die. Yoon Seok-yeol(president) killed them. A few policemen were there to catch criminals who took drugs. Not to control people.. ..and innocent korean amreican and japanese and Australian. Chinese. Iran. Etc never ever come to korea if you do not wanna die like cockroaches..i warn you foreiners as a korean.. this is not a safe country anymore… yoon (president) ruins korea. He just wanna revenge Opposite party politically .he does not care nothing except it….

  2. Condolences to all the families who lost their loved ones in South Korea Halloween festival.

    1. Yoon Seok-yeol (president) moved to Yongsan out from blue house.. People are dead because the police force is all out to protect Yoon Seok-yeol. If you control the road to be one-way, people won’t die. And if people close the ramp, people won’t die. Yoon Seok-yeol(president) killed them. A few policemen were there to catch criminals who took drugs. Not to control people.. ..and innocent korean amreican and japanese and Australian. Chinese. Iran. Etc never ever come to korea if you do not wanna die like cockroaches..i warn you foreiners as a korean.. this is not a safe country anymore… yoon (president) ruins korea. He just wanna revenge Opposite party politically .he does not care nothing except it….

    2. @Ianna the sooner you start fixing the economy and high Democrat crime rates, as well as shelter in your own home illegal migrants, the sooner it gets better for all of us. Follow through with what you voted for.

    3. @Leigh Williams Democrats are deploying their Russian and Chinese bots as well as thousands of mules. their desperation grows with each passing day.

  3. I’ve been in a situation like that many years ago in Italy at a concert in a stadium. It’s maybe the worst nightmare one can experience, because at a certain point you realize that you are going to die and you panic, which makes the entire situation just worse. Luckily there were no dead back then, but dozens of people were injuried and needed hospitalization.
    My thoughts go to the victims and their relatives and friends. Rest in peace.

    1. Same happened to me. I decided to never pay to be in the front never again. It’s astonishing how we all go to concerts, religious festivals, carnivals, music festivals, and so many more huge gatherings of people, plus these types of tragedies had happened many times before around the world, and still we as a society just won’t take the time to educate ourselves about crowds safety. Why isn’t this being taught at school? Only recently (because of these tragedy, actually) I discover there are lots of college centers, departments, students and professors completely dedicated to investigate crowds risks. I felt like such an ignorant, such easy prevention measures could save so many lives.

  4. It really hurts to feel such sadness at a time of year everyone wants to have a good time. My prayers to all of them

  5. For anyone who ever complained about crowd control regulations and restrictions, this is the reason they exist. For communities and governments who have experienced this before. Good intentions gone awry.

    South Korea must not have seen anything like this in their history before. An innocence broken. Condolences for a lesson learned in the most agonizing way.

    1. @Jeff W. South Korea has seen something like this. In 2018/19 it was reported up to 130,000 and up to 170,000 were in Itaewon for Halloween celebrations in the past. The incident that happened a couple days ago with much lower attendance was just a series of unfortunate events that led to the deaths. Crowd control and limiting the amount of people in the narrow streets could’ve have prevented this tragedy.

    2. @digiryde Seriously do u think couple of people can push thousand people? It is told 10ish tons of weigh, n u seriously think couple of people can actually push tons n tons. Do u ever think? Or u just want to blame the victims to protect the government that didn’t do anything to protect the people, and still don’t take any responsibility. The Korean gov. simply abandoned its duty.

    3. @ghdi ghdi that’s crazy many Korean Americans in america is talking about this and wondering where it all went so wrong. I assumed that it was because Korean leadership are extremely ignorant to understanding crowd control, how police in general culturally in Korea aren’t taken seriously even talked down upon at times. I thought it was a cultural difference where in places like America generally have safety policies that they take extremely seriously due to fear of being sued. Idk if Korea is on that same level but at the end of the day Korea is a popular international country with western values they have to recognize this and they have to follow through and make some serious changes.

    4. COMMON SENSE education is THE way, not restrictions, nor regulations. We’re not pets, sheep, or slaves. Need to be able to think for yourself, myself, ourselves. If you don’t, there are zillions of ways you could die becoz of stupidity!

    5. @Pan that’s the fact, peoples and authorities ignored whatever will possible outcome that night, their focus is to have fun. Its like party at your own risk. They expected from the start that more than 100k will come. The area and the alley around are all narrows also way going to train station that people are coming in and out. I think its not for festivities area.

  6. I’m reminded of the boat sinking. Another terrible tragedy where so many young people were lost. How horrible for their families. How many of these families are losing their only child? So sad.

  7. That night was supposedly a fun night for youngsters after the covid restriction but it turned out to be a sad and horrific night. I can’t imagine the trauma of those who survived fighting for their lives. Rest in peace to those who killed and sending my deepest condolence to those families of the victims. Wishing a fast recovery to those injured. I hope it will never happen again.

  8. It doesn’t take hindsight to know that cramming yourself into narrow spaces with thousands of other people is a bad idea.

  9. Condolences to all victims’ families! This is an tragic events. I hope whoever experienced this would be finally recovered from the traumatize. I can’t describe how heavy my heart was every single time I watched the news about this tragedy, pray for all of them and South Korea through this sadness.

  10. i’ve experienced this a little. i went to a concert w/ multiple artists at the Staples Center and before the doors opened some fangirls in front thought they saw an artist walking the hallway inside and screamed. it caused a rush to the glass doors and i was caught up in it. it got hot and sweaty/uncomfortable real fast. i remember getting mad and me and some big guys who were there with their gfs were yelling “back up!!! False alarm! knock it off!” etc until people started backing up. luckily it wasn’t a crowd this dense AND it was an open space not narrow with walls on the sides like there in that alleyway. i’m telling you it’s awful.

    1. Yes, I have had the same experience and it is amazing how quick it can turn into an escalating stampede like situation, I could barely breath.

    2. Same happened to me. I decided to never pay to be in the front never again. It’s astonishing how we all go to concerts, religious festivals, carnivals, music festivals, and so many more huge gatherings of people, plus these types of tragedies had happened many times before around the world, and still we as a society just won’t take the time to educate ourselves about crowds safety. Why isn’t this being taught at school? Only recently (because of these tragedy, actually) I discover there are lots of college centers, departments, students and professors completely dedicated to investigate crowds risks. I felt like such an ignorant, such easy prevention measures could save so many lives.

  11. I saw footage on tiktok earlier of people being crushed and crying out and it was so heartbreaking and horrific seeing that. finding out most of the victims are my age or slightly younger is so sad. my condolences to everyone who lost someone, their lives and those who tried to help. ❤🙏🌺

    1. See everything from different point of view. It’s better to die younger than living only to become wage slave for the rest of their life.

    2. @Roni Sugianto true. but no one deserves to die so maybe don’t say something like this on a video mourning people who literally died. like have some sympathy.

    3. @Bab Blo This had nothing to do with Halloween. Crowd crushes have happened during all sorts of festivities, including sports events, political rallies, music concerts, shopping sprees, etc. It’s just what happens when you have too many people gathered in a space that isn’t designed to hold them.

  12. Most people underestimate the danger in crowds. if you notice you can’t move freely anymore and you are being pushed around with the crowd that’s a warning sign. This can start to happen with as few as 5-6 people per square meter. As crowd density increases, the potential for danger only grows. All it takes is for one person to fall down.

    We can debate whether the crowd size may should have been expected, or why the police seemed unprepared but IMO allowing the crowd into a narrow, downhill alley was the #1 mistake. It should have been barricaded because it should have been someone’s job to understand the risk it posed in this scenario.

    Police got complacent, concerned more with illegal activity than the inherent danger of the massive crowd. There is a reason crowd science exists, and the police forgot this until too late.

    1. Just one question, even the police tried to stop them, how many would actually listen to the police? Especially when they drank alcohol. And there were also quite a numbers of minor there that night. WTH parents let their under age children be there? Speaking as a parent. I keep telling my teenage child “People around won’t save you. You are the only one to save yourself. Act responsibly, avoid dangers around you”

  13. Why is no one, except on Twitter, talking about ALL the people who were shouting “Push” and kept pushing people instead of taking a second to think that wasn’t a good idea under any circumstances. Why didn’t business owners/ managers and security notify authorities that the alley was getting to that level of capacity making it dangerous for their patrons to exit and creating a potential fire hazard? So much more could’ve been done to prevent these people from dying in this horrific way. It’s just incredibly heartbreaking.

  14. My Deepest Condolences And Sympathty Goes Out To Those Who Unfortunately Loose They Lives In The Tragic Event In South Korea.

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