More than 150 dead at Seoul Halloween celebrations

The party district of Itaewon in Seoul always draws the crowds on Halloween. Now an alley became a death trap. The search for culprits could have political consequences.

A woman looks emotionally at her mobile phone near the scene of the accident.

Kim Hong-Ji / Reuters

It was supposed to be South Korea’s biggest Halloween party in three years. But after more than 150 teenagers and twenty-somethings – two thirds of them women – were trampled to death in the capital Seoul on Sunday night, the country is in mourning. President Yoon Suk Yeol immediately declared a week of national mourning on Sunday and had an altar built for the victims. That’s how deep the shock of Itaewon, the district where the tragedy took place, is.

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