Death toll is likely to rise. This is … my vocabulary is too limited for this. What the fuck?
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Shocking stuff. When I taught in Seoul, everyone went to Itaewon for Halloween… including myself on multiple occasions. It was never this crowded though. There will probably be a number of expats among the dead.
And death toll is already much higher. Around 160 last I checked.
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Just saw 100,000 people attended the Halloween festival there. As someone who remembers those narrow alleyways in that district, all I can say is Christ almighty… no one thought that might be an issue? Taiwan gets a lot of crap in that development thread, but Korea is the king of avoidable high casualty events in recent years.
itaewon is a major expat spot in Korea. INSANELY FUN, ABSOLUTELY INSANE NIGHTS. the corridors are small and 100,000 people in an area sounds insane. Just saw a video, just dead bodies everywhere.
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Holy smokes. Last I heard on the news was 50 injured. It got a lot worse. Prayers for their safety.
Something similar happened at Lan Kwai Fong in Hong Kong decades ago on New Year’s eve or something. Shocked the whole city and people still talk about it to this day. It led to much stricter crowd control measures and heavier police presence ever since.
It was nowhere near 160 dead though. That’s an insanely high number. I think only like 20 died out of the 20,000 that was there.
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I did a big NYE thing in Taichung circa 1998. Tens of thousands of people smashed into the streets around Sogo. Never again. We were getting crushed against parked cars.
At some point an adult or a cop or someone has to step in and say, nope. No more. Fun’s over. Go home. Tragic.
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Sad…
I have enjoyed many great nights in Itaewon…
RIP…
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My feelings exactly when I read this thread. Tragic.
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Is that important?
I read that someone posted online that someone famous was there so a lot of people rushed there.
Horrible horrible horrible
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Not sure that’s true. A lot of idiocy either way.
Why not? Would it not be important if there were expats amongst the dead in a mass casualty event in Taiwan? Yes, of course we would discuss it. Virtue signaling doesn’t suit you, Jimi.
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Two foreigners were among the dead, and others were transferred to nearby hospitals.
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Thanks. Not in ANY sense saying expat deaths are more important fwiw. But Itaewon is like the major hub for expats and I have a number of expat friends who still work around there so of course I’m curious. Thought there might be some shitty “why does that matter?” comment when I asked that earlier, and unfortunately I was proven right. Bollocks!
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Really sad to see this. Truly a public policy disaster…so many young people gone. I can’t even imagine the misery of being buried under a pile of other people.
I wonder if there were more people there this year than in Halloweens prior. I assume so.
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Yeah, I think so. When I would go to these Halloween events, like between 2008 and 2012, it was crowded but nowhere like this. I guess kids really wanted to get out and party since it had been cancelled in recent years due to COVID. Met my ex-fiancée at one of these Itaewon Halloween events.
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This reminds of that ferry disaster from years ago where hundreds of Korean teenagers perished. Unbelievable.
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