Chaos: Rescue workers treating injured people on the street near the scene of the crowd surge in Seoul, South Korea. — AP
SEOUL: South Korean police are seeking criminal charges including involuntary manslaughter and negligence against 23 officials, about half of them law enforcement officers, for a lack of safety measures they said were responsible for a crowd surge that killed nearly 160 people.
Despite anticipating a weekend crowd of more than 100,000, Seoul police had assigned 137 officers to the capital’s nightlife district Itaewon on the day of the crush.
Those officers were focused on monitoring narcotics use and violent crimes, which experts say left few resources for pedestrian safety.
Son Je-han, who headed the National Police Agency’s special investigation into the incident, said yesterday his team will now send the case to prosecutors.
Those recommended for indictment include Park Hee-young, who is mayor of Seoul’s Yongsan district, and the district’s former police chief Lee Im-jae – two of the six who have been arrested.
Lee has also been accused of falsifying a police report to disguise his late arrival to the scene. Two other police officials have been arrested over suspicions they attempted to destroy computer files and other potential evidence.
The results of the 74-day police investigation announced by Son mostly confirmed what was already clear – that police and public officials in Yongsan failed to employ meaningful crowd control measures for the expected numbers of Halloween revellers and essentially ignored pedestrian calls placed to police hotlines that warned of a swelling crowd hours before the surge turned deadly on Oct 28.
Officials also botched their response once people began getting toppled over and crushed in a narrow alley clogged with partygoers near Hamilton Hotel around 10pm, failing to establish effective control of the scene and allow rescue workers to reach the injured in time, Son said. — AP
