South Korean Prime Minister Han Duk-sooadmitted on Tuesday the absence of protocols in the Asian country to avoid the human avalanche which cost the lives of more than 150 people over the weekend in seoul and promised that the Government will promote “regulatory changes” to create a system that prevents such an event from happening again.
(Read here: Seoul: dramatic videos of the stampede at the Halloween festival in Itaewon)
Han also asked for time to investigate everything surrounding an incident that occurred when around 100,000 people celebrated Halloweenn in the nightlife district of Itaewon, in the South Korean capital.
(You may be interested in: Stampede in South Korea: the hard story of a Latina who survived tragedy)
Two other women, two young South Koreans aged 21 and 24, died on Tuesday, increasing the death toll to 156 as a result of the accumulation of people that originated in a narrow alley of the mentioned neighborhood.
There are still fears for the lives of another 29 seriously injured people and there are 112 with minor injuries, as detailed today by the Disaster and Emergency Countermeasures Command headed by Prime Minister Han himself.
Both the head of the National Police Agency (NPA), Yoon Hee-keun, and the mayor of Seoul, Oh Se-hoon, today apologized to the victims, with the latter promising that his city council will work to guarantee security in the events that gather crowds in the city.
Lack of mechanisms
In a press conference held in Seoul, the prime minister insisted on something that some authorities had already advanced in previous days: in South Korear There is no “obligation” or mechanism on the part of a municipal authority to activate a security protocol in relation to an event that is not organized by any entity or individual, as opposed to a sports competition, a concert or a demonstration.
South Korea, and Seoul especially, is a country famous for hosting protests every week, and Han stressed that the protocols are very clear in such cases, especially since there is a possibility of violent clashes.
“Normally these gatherings of people (like Halloween) are peaceful and this incident looks like a ‘black swan’, as has been said,” Han explained, using a metaphor to describe an unexpected or unpredictable event.
As for the factors that led to the tragedy, the prime minister asked for patience, stating that the investigation will be exhaustive, but that it is still at an early stage.
The police have already interviewed dozens of witnesses and are analyzing videos posted on social networks and images from some 40 security cameras in the area.
For his part, the chief superintendent of the National Police Agency, Woo Jong-soo, explained in the same appearance that the Itaweon merchants’ association held a meeting on October 26 in which the possibility of there being a number of people greater than other years due to the end of restrictions due to the pandemic.
Emergency calls
The NPA assured today in turn that there is evidence that many people called the emergency number or went to police stations to warn that the concentration of people was reaching dangerous levels in Itaewon and that the response that was implemented in that is being analyzed. moment.
In turn, it is still unknown if the Yongsan city council, the district to which Itaewon belongs, or the police department of this demarcation criticized at some point the lack of troops to handle an amount of public that was visibly growing over the years. or the aforementioned absence of mechanisms to dispose of resources if a massive event without organizers is planned.
“Of course it is a lesson for us,” admitted Han, who offered an appearance of almost two and a half hours and promised to answer questions “until there are no more” for the sake of transparency.
“We need to devise a system or infrastructure that prevents something like this from happening again,” he added regarding the need to change the national security and disaster management law in order to “make this a better and safer country.”
The prime minister also assured that the foreign fatalities, 26 at the moment, will be treated “in the same way as the Koreans”, including the payment of expenses necessary for the transfer of the bodies.
He also stated that the same will happen with the foreign wounded who do not have national health insurance coverage and that they will also have free psychological assistance.
EFE
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