• Itaewon is a popular nightlife district in Seoul, South Korea.
• Tens of thousands of people descended on the location to celebrate Halloween.
• There had been 154 fatalities and hundreds more injuries.

The winding streets of Itaewon, the neon-lit nightlife district in Seoul, South Korea, are packed with revelers and tourists most weekends. One of the deadliest calamities to hit the nation has now occurred there.

Tens of thousands of people descended on the location in central Seoul on Saturday night to celebrate Halloween, but as the numbers grew, panic broke out, with some witnesses reporting that it became difficult to breathe and impossible to move.

Up until Sunday, there had been 154 fatalities and hundreds more injuries. As families throughout the nation grieve and look for missing loved ones, authorities have now opened an urgent investigation to determine how what was supposed to be a night of celebration went so brutally wrong.

Here is what we currently know.

Halloween has long been a popular event in Itaewon, especially in recent years when the holiday gained popularity in Asia. For the festivities, some people even fly into Seoul from other nearby nations.

However, because to pandemic limits on crowd numbers and mask requirements, celebrations have been subdued for the past two years.

For many excited participants in Seoul as well as for foreign visitors including foreign residents and tourists, Saturday night marked the first Halloween since the government relaxed these limitations.

The area’s hotels and ticketed activities were fully reserved months in advance, and big crowds were predicted.

Before the mob turned deadly, witnesses told CNN that there was little to no crowd control.

Videos and images shared on social media show a crowded street with people standing shoulder to shoulder.

For that location and for residents of Seoul, who are used to crowded streets and subways in a city of roughly 10 million, crowds are not unusual.

According to one eyewitness, it took some time for people to recognize something was wrong because the music blasting from the nearby clubs and pubs competed with people’s frantic screams.

Authorities went to the area as soon as the first emergency calls started coming in about 10:24 p.m., but the sheer number of individuals there made it impossible to locate those who needed assistance.

Social media users posted videos of people applying compressions to other partygoers who were laying on the ground and awaiting medical attention.

The large-scale sensation of bewilderment and disorder was exacerbated by the thousands of people wearing Halloween costumes. A police officer was heard shouting throughout the incident, according to a witness, but several partygoers mistaken him for another guest.

Although officials reported that there were no fires or gas leaks on the scene, the reason of the crush is still being investigated.

According to officials, the victims were largely young adults in their teens and early 20s. Itaewon is well-liked by foreign students and backpackers and is well-known for its nightlife and hip restaurants.

At least 26 foreign nationals were among the 154 dead, according to the authorities, with fatalities hailing from the United States, China, Iran, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Japan, Australia, Norway, France, Russia, Austria, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan among others.

According to South Korea’s Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, all but one of the fatalities had been identified. The Interior and Safety Ministry of South Korea claimed that 97 women and 56 men were among the fatalities.

Six children from schools, including one in middle school, were among the fatalities, according to the South Korean Ministry of Education on Monday. Also lost were three teachers.

The number of hurt people increased to 133 as of 5 p.m. local time on Sunday (4 a.m. ET), the ministry reported, with 37 of those being critically hurt.

More than 4,000 reports of missing people, according to the Seoul city government, have been received. Multiple reports for the same person or reports made on Saturday night for those who have since been located could be included in that total.

Since no one vanished from the site, according to the police, there is no active search for individuals who have been reported missing; instead, the missing person reports have been used to help identify those who died.

In reaction to anticipated protests there, “a large number” of police and security forces were dispatched to another area of Seoul on Saturday, according to Lee Sang-min, the minister of the interior and safety, who said this on Sunday.

He claimed that the throng in Itaewon had not been exceptionally large and that hence only a “regular” amount of security personnel had been stationed there.

More than 1,700 emergency response personnel, including more than 500 firefighters, 1,100 police officers, and roughly 70 government employees, were sent to the scene as the tragedy developed on Saturday night.

The emergency conference was called by President Yoon Suk Yeol, who asked officials to identify the dead as soon as possible.

However, even hours later, relatives were still awaiting word on the condition of their loved ones.

Following the incident, numerous individuals were moved to adjacent institutions, and the dead were sent to numerous hospital morgues. Near the scene, where authorities were gathering the names of the missing and dead, families gathered.

Yoon stated that the government would “perform emergency inspections not only for Halloween events but also for local festivals and properly manage them so they are conducted in an orderly and safe manner” in order to prevent such occurrences from happening again.

Additionally, the government will offer counselling services and set up a fund for the surviving and damaged families.

Itaewon’s neighborhood of Yongsan-gu has been declared a special disaster area, and a period of national mourning will last until November 5.

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