South Korea steps up monitoring in crowded subways after Seoul stampede

South Korea is beefing up monitoring at crowded subway stations, following a deadly Halloween crush that killed more than 150 people in Seoul, officials said on Friday.

The annual festivities in the popular nightlife area of Itaewon turned deadly on Saturday night, after tens of thousands of young revellers crowded into narrow streets and alleyways. It was the first Halloween event in three years that was virtually free of Covid-19 restrictions.

"Similar high-risk situations could be created at subway rush hour," Prime Minister Han Duck Soo said, urging the police to properly respond, in order to prevent accidents due to overcrowding.

Starting on Friday, police will be deployed to subway stations in the capital to join metro officials in crowd control activities, the Prime Minister explained.

On Tuesday, National Police Commissioner General Yoon Hee Keun admitted that crowd control at the site of the disaster was "inadequate", noting that the police had received multiple reports warning of possible accidents on the night of the surge.

Proper crowd and traffic control by the authorities could have prevented or at least reduced the surge of Halloween partygoers in alleys, experts said.

With a week of national mourning set to end on Saturday, a civic group which has been holding weekly rallies against the Yoon Suk Yeol administration will stage a candlelight vigil on Saturday evening to mourn the victims, the organiser said.

The disaster killed 156 and injured 187, leaving 33 in a serious condition. At least 26 citizens from 14 countries were among the dead.

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