On October 29th, 2022, more than 100,000 people gathered at the center of South Korea, Itaewon to celebrate Halloween. It was reported that young men and women were noticed along that path.

Halloween parties are not new at Itaewon, but this year’s party may have been different. Videos from social media show crowds of people flooding into the streets in the early evening of Saturday. 

Nuhyil Ahammed, a 32-year-old IT worker has experienced many Halloween parties at Itaewon but recognized that this year was different: he says it was crazy. Starting from 5 pm, people filled the streets, and it was clear that the streets wouldn’t have enough space by the time it hit 7 or 8 pm, which is the time when most people are active. 

Then, at 6:34 pm, the tragedy began. Several calls were made to the police, claiming that people are pushing through the street upwards, and people that want to make it down are stuck. Although the officer had answered the call saying that they’d send help to control the streets, no forces were sent for hours. 

It was later reported that out of 11 emergency calls made, only 4 calls received adequate responses that mobilized officers. 

By 10:15 pm, people were falling from the pathway, and crowds of people pushing from both sides of the alley only crushed more people. By 11:19 pm, the police ordered all Halloween events to be canceled and pursued an investigation, which, in conclusion, came to be more than 150 dead, and 120 injured. 

This tragedy, however, could have been prevented very simply. It is obvious that the police had not responded to this matter adequately in the first place, but there could have been another way to prevent this: recognizing danger.

Galea, a professor in crowd behavior expert, claims that a crowd stampede occurs when there are more than 6 people per square meter. Meaning, the maximum number of people in one square meter is 4, and above 6 will start an accident, which most definitely leads to a stampede. 

South Korea is a well-developed country; therefore, we can see the importance of any mechanism that’ll be able to track how many people are in per square meter, and inform people within that spot of danger if necessary. 

The Itaewon Stampede is truly a tragedy, but we must remember that simple actions can prevent accidents like these, and must adapt measures such as Galea’s method, of determining how crowded the area is, to further prevent any of this.   

황동원 강남포스트 학생기자  webmaster@ignnews.kr

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