An Australian is among the victims of 

An Australian is among the victims of ‘s stampede, where more than 150 people killed in a horror crowd crush.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed the news on Sunday as the department continues ‘urgent inquiries’ to assist other Australians caught up in the chaos.

At least one other dual citizen is in intensive care in a stable condition amid reports several other Aussies were injured. 

‘The Australian embassy in Seoul has been notified of the death of an Australian at the tragic event in Seoul,’ DFAT said.

‘Consular officers from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade are providing consular assistance to the individual’s family in Australia.

‘Consular officials are also assisting a number of other Australians who were present at the event.

‘The Australian government sends its condolences to the family and others affected by this tragic incident.We ask for the family’s privacy to be respected during this difficult time.’

The massive stampede in Seoul left at least 151 people dead and hundreds more injured on Saturday with emergency services overwhelmed after a fatal crush amongst a 100,000-strong crowd on a narrow street during Halloween festivities.

An official from the National Fire Agency initially said around 100 people were injured during the deadly crowd surge on Saturday night, but the figure rapidly grew.

It is believed that 100,000 people had gathered in Itaewon to attend the city’s 2022 Halloween Festival, the first time it has been held at this size since Covid, with the crush occurring shortly after 10pm local time. 

Officials confirmed that dozens of people went into cardiac arrest and the number of deaths is still expected to rise.An unspecified number remain in a critical condition in hospital.

Photos from the scene showed at least 25 bodies lying on the ground in the streets of Seoul, concealed by yellow blankets. A separate line of bodies covered in blue blankets was also photographed.

As the full scale of the tragedy was still being realised, South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol said on Sunday morning that the deadly stampede ‘should not have happened’.

‘In the centre of Seoul, a tragedy and disaster occurred that should not have happened,’ Yoon said in a national address, vowing to ‘thoroughly investigate’ the incident and ensure it could never happen again.

According to local emergency responders, many of the victims were women in their 20s, and most were teenagers or in their early twenties. A makeshift morgue was set up in an adjacent building due to the sheer number of fatalities.

Officials added it was believed that people were crushed to death after a large crowd began pushing forward in a narrow alley near Hamilton Hotel, a major party spot in Seoul, upon hearing rumours a celebrity was nearby.

Dozens of people were given CPR on Itaewon’s streets while many others have been taken to nearby hospitals. 

One witness described the height of the crush: ‘People were layered on top of others like a tomb.Some were gradually losing their consciousness while some looked dead by that point.’ 

Photographs and videos on social media show horrific scenes of panic in the aftermath of the crush, and people’s desperate efforts to escape from the building tragedy. 

One particularly distressing video showed dozens of people struggling to breathe and stay on their feet in the crowd as rescue workers attempted to extricate those most in need of medical assistance from the throng. 

More than 1,700 emergency workers were deployed from across South Korea to respond to one of the deadliest crowd crushes in recent history.More footage overlooking the street showed dozens of emergency responders working desperately to administer CPR to victims lying on the street. 

One man was pictured climbing an almost flat wall high above the crowd to escape the panic beneath him. 

Video on social media showed dozens of motionless figures lying on the ground in the aftermath of the incident while dozens more emergency workers and members of the public worked intensely around them.

Most of the figures were being given CPR and are thought to have had cardiac arrests. 

The deadly incident occurred when the densely packed crowd surged into a narrow alleyway. 

Social media footage showed hundreds of people packed in the sloped alley, crushed and immobile as emergency officials and police tried to pull them to free. 

A Reuters witness said a make-shift morgue was set up in a building adjacent to the scene.About four dozen bodies were carried out later on wheeled stretchers and moved to a government facility to identify the victims, according to the witness. 

Choi Seong-beom, chief of Seoul’s Yongsan fire department, said the death toll could rise as emergency workers were continuing to transport the injured to hospitals across Seoul following the stampede in the leisure district of Itaewon on Saturday night. 

He added an unspecified number among the injured were in critical conditions following the stampede.It is thought at least 100 other people were hurt.

The stampede took place around 10.20pm (1300 GMT) and according to Choi many of the victims were trampled to death.

‘The high number of casualties was the result of many being trampled during the Halloween event,’ Choi said, adding that the death toll could climb.

He said that many of those killed in the incident were young women in their 20s.

Hundreds of police officers had been deployed to the area in advance of Saturday night in anticipation of the large crowds, but they were reportedly struggling to keep control in the minutes before the tragedy unfolded.  

As well as the 1,700-strong emergency worker response, 15 ‘disaster’ medical teams were also deployed from around South Korea to help in the aftermath of the crush. 

But emergency services were initially vastly overstretched and overwhelmed, resulting in dozens of passers-by and eyewitnesses trying to assist those injured and dying.

Reports from local media suggest Seoul has set up a roster for those worried about loved ones to find information. 

 

In an interview with news channel YTN, Hwang Min-hyeok, a visitor to Itaewon, said emergency workers were initially overwhelmed, leaving pedestrians struggling to administer CPR to the injured lying on the streets.People wailed beside the bodies of their friends, he said.

Another survivor in his 20s said he avoided being trampled by managing to get into a bar whose door was open at the alley, Yonhap news agency reported. A woman in her 20s surnamed Park said she and others were standing along the side of the alley while others caught in the middle of the alley had no escape.

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