The police were contacted at 6:34 pm KST ( around 3:00 pm IST), several hours before the tragedy.
The caller reportedly said to the Korean Emergency Services that the main street leading to Itaewon was becoming dangerously crowded.
The caller said that it was dangerous as people were going up and down, resulting in a blockage for people to go down as people were coming up, leading to a crush. He also said that he himself made it out somehow and advised the police to control the masses of people.
The police asked him if the people were flowing well and if it was dangerous at the moment, if they would get crushed in the fall, and whether there was going to be an accident.
The caller responded to the moment as âchillingâ.
This was one of the ten calls the police received over the three hours of the incident, and the local residents say that the police presence during the night was “wholly inadequate”.
Looking into the evidence and the analysis of the experts, the officials have apologised for their mistakes and have admitted that it was a failure and that the emergency response to the tragedy was âinadequateâ and that they did not try to prevent it. The authorities have acknowledged that the local authorities were not prepared for such an event and struggled to manage the crowds.
Itaewon is popularly known for its nightlife. The people were celebrating Halloween, and the neighbourhood is one of the busiest in the country.
An eyewitness who lives near the area says that she tried to go there around 9:00 pm but after seeing the crowd she decided not to go, and that around 10:00 pm the crowd was so packed that no one could move. The metro station was so packed that many people had to get off at the next station to go home.
An eye-witness says that the volunteers were doing a better job of controlling the crowd than the police and the local business association. They had asked for the policeâs help the previous week and hadnât received it.
The Mayor, in a press conference, said that the Youngsan council did everything within its power and, as the Halloween celebrations had no organiser, it was a different situation. She apologised to the families who lost loved ones.
The people who lost their lives were mostly teens or were in their early 20s. The narrowness of the street trapped them, and when some of them fell, everyone started falling like a domino.
The police have reverted the blame to others, saying that they had asked the Seoul Train Services not to run trains and that the local police in Yongsan said no to controlling the crowd.
But it is clear that the police failed to take control of the crowd.
