At least 146 people have been killed after a stampede in the South Korean capital of Seoul, according to local fire authorities.
The victims were crushed by a large crowd pushing forward on a narrow street during Halloween festivities near the Hamilton Hotel in the Itaewon area.
Footage on social media showed many victims lying on the pavement as workers from the emergency services and bystanders performed CPR in an effort to revive them.
Follow live updates: Death toll rises after crush during Halloween festivities
Choi Seong-beom, chief of Seoul's Yongsan fire department, said the death toll could rise, with 150 people injured and a number of them in critical condition in hospital.
Most of the bodies have been sent to hospitals, while the rest are being taken to a nearby gym so that they can be identified, he added.
Hundreds of emergency services personnel were deployed to the streets to treat the injured, including all available personnel in Seoul.
It is not clear what prompted the crowd surge, although some local media reports said a large number of people had rushed to the area after hearing an unidentified celebrity had been there.
Seoul's mayor Oh Se-hoon was visiting Europe, but decided to return home following the news.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol chaired an emergency meeting following the stampede.
He said in a statement that officials should ensure swift treatment for those injured and that the safety of festivity sites should be reviewed.
Local media said around 100,000 people headed to Itaewon for the Halloween festivities, which were the biggest in years following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions in recent months.
King_Shami on October 29th, 2022 at 20:55 UTC »
18 hospitals involved and if parents can’t find their child, they would have to go Yongsan sport stadium where dead bodies are placed
nomadiclizard on October 29th, 2022 at 20:24 UTC »
It's scary to imagine two zones of people, one in terror, slowly and silently being crushed to death, another not knowing anything at all is wrong, and just slowly moving towards the crush being guided by the crowd, happy and partying, with a boundary layer between them perhaps only a dozen people deep making coordination really hard. Like.. how do you get the message to a crowd of thousands of people to stop doing something when all they're really doing is standing up and going with the general flow?
MarkBellhorn1 on October 29th, 2022 at 19:48 UTC »
Video showed that even when the alley entrance was clear the people were so jammed together they couldn’t move while rescuers were failing to pull people out because they were stuck. I’ve never seen anything like this