News Wrap: Hundreds killed and injured in Seoul stampede

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• John Yang:

  Good evening. We begin tonight with tragedy in South Korea. At least 146 people have died and another 150 were injured after an apparent crowds crush during Halloween festivities in Seoul's popular e Itaewon District. Joining us by phone is William Gallo. He's the Seoul Bureau Chief for the Voice of America. William, it's just a little past 6 a.m. Sunday for you there now. I know you've spent much of the night in Itaewon. What's the situation there now?

• William Gallo, VOA Correspondent, (on the phone, Seoul):

  At least as they believe in now in certain areas in the Itaewon District is a party healing area, especially on the weekends, especially at Halloween. The biggest night of the year and this area is Halloween. Everyone dresses up. It's a big deal. There were massive crowds. Obviously when this chaos broke down. You know, there was a lot of confusion. I think a lot of people were inside clubs listening to music. And then it slowly dawned on then that something had happened. Right now, there are certain areas that are in policing other parts. There are still partiers in clubs and there's club here that going on even while bodies are still being loaded into ambulances.

• John Yang:

  You say bodies still being loaded to the ambulances. Is that death toll likely to rise, do you think?

• William Gallo:

  I think that we have most of the bodies accounted for at this point. However, there is an expectation that many of the injured, ill becomes serious. We have about 150 injured. There's this really a nightmare of a situation. There's still a lot of confusion going on, a strange mix of people dressed up in Halloween costumes. Those sort of in various states of sobriety, confused, some not concerned at all others, you know, just mourning and crying on the street.

• John Yang:

  Is there any sense or any idea from the people you talk to, what triggered this?

• William Gallo:

  No, it was a very small alleyway, where I'm standing next to right now where this happened. At its narrowest, I'd say the alleyway is about 10 feet across. This was a Russian people. I don't know if it's correct to call it a stampede but in a situation that was as crowded as it was where it was, you know basically people were standing shoulder to shoulder with each other in a very loud crowded atmosphere. Whenever panic spreads, this kind of thing can happen. Unfortunately, it happened on the — in the worst possible area, on the worst possible night here in Seoul.

• John Yang:

  Give us a sense of that area, of what it's like there. You talk about some narrow alleyways that perhaps could that have contributed to what happened and who was likely there. What kind of crowd likely gathered gathers in Itaewon?

• William Gallo:

  There are lots of foreigners here. It's by no means predominantly foreigner. It's mostly Koreans. There is also a large gathering of minority groups in this area of Itaewon. These are minority groups, such as LGBTQ members of that community, who don't necessarily feel comfortable in all parts of Korean society, and so they sort of look at this as a safe haven. There's a lot of transgender bars, a lot of gay bars, and a lot of other bars here.

  We don't have an idea of how many foreigners were killed and how many Koreans were killed and injured in parts because it's very hard to identify the bodies right now, especially because they, they think many of these people were in costume, and maybe either lost or were not carrying their identification in this way, they really don't have a good idea or any signs to told this yet about who was affected by this tragedy.

• John Yang:

  And I just want to have to ask you to repeat what you said at the top. There's still partying going on and sort of activities going on and clubs, even as all this is happening in the street?

• William Gallo:

  Absolutely, it's about 6 a.m. here, and there are still parts of Itaewon that has largely been not affected. There have been, I would say over a dozen emergency alert notifications, that has automatically come up on people's cell phones here in Korea asking them to leave.

  However, there were possibly 100,000 people here tonight and then be very, you know, packed area, full of, you know, thousands of establishments. It's hard, I think for authorities to clear them all out right away. But he did have very, I don't even know what to call it. I guess it's a real tragic case that you could hear club music coming from inside the establishments, wild bodies will be likely to ambulance to that site.

• John Yang:

  William Gallo, the Voice of America and what is certainly a tragic and sounds like slightly surreal scene in Itaewon. The Itaewon neighborhood of Seoul, South Korea. William, thank you very, very much.

• William Gallo:

  No problem.

• John Yang:

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