Grief, prayers and anger at South Korea crowd crush memorial

SEOUL, South Korea –

With tens of thousands of people crammed into a narrow alleyway — and police and crowd control measures nowhere in sight — eye-witnesses have described how partygoers became trapped, crushed and suffocated in a human surge. “The victims were young. I’m a similar age and I’m just devastated by what happened,” 19-year-old student Hwang Gyu-hyeon told AFP.

“If only there had been more police officers to keep order, this would not have happened,” Song said angrily. “It doesn’t feel like someone else’s tragedy,” she said, adding that in Japan, young people also enjoyed Halloween celebrations, but authorities made sure they were safe.“I’ve been to the site myself, and it is such a small alley. They could have taken so many steps, like making the alley a one-way or limiting the number of people there. I don’t understand why these steps weren’t taken.”

Friends hugged and comforted each other while they added their flowers and other tributes to the growing pile at the scene, which soon took up much of the sidewalk.

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