'Crowd fell like dominoes': Witnesses reveal horror of deadly South Korea stampede

As the death toll continues to mount in the tragic stampede that occurred in a district of Seoul, South Korea on Saturday, several eye-witness accounts have surfaced. An onlooker who witnessed the horrific incident revealed on Twitter that the stampede appeared like a domino effect when a crowd got pushed into a narrow alley during the Halloween celebration in Itaewon on Saturday night.

"People kept pushing down into a downhill club alley, resulting in other people screaming and falling down like dominos. I thought I would be crushed to death too as people kept pushing without realizing there were people falling down at the start of the stampede,” the unidentified witness wrote. 

"People were layered on top of others like a tomb. Some were gradually losing their consciousness while some looked dead by that point," one onlooker told South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency. “It looks like the casualties were more severe as people attempted to escape to nearby stores but were kicked out back to the street because business hours were over,” said an anonymous survivor. 

At least 153 people, including adults and minors, died in South Korea's worst disaster in years. Among the deceased were 22 foreign nationals, who hailed from various countries including China, Norway, Iran, and Uzbekistan, according to Yongsan fire department chief Choi Seong-bum. Local authorities said that most victims died in the crowded narrow alley due to breathing issues and cardiac arrest. 

South Korea begins nationwide mourning period

Following the tragic event, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol announced that a weeklong national mourning will be observed. In a televised address on Sunday, the President called the incident “truly horrific.” “The government will designate the period from today until the accident is brought under control as a period of national mourning and will place top priority in administrative affairs in recovery and follow-up measures," he said.

He further offered condolences and prayed for quick recuperation of the wounded victims. Yoon also paid a visit to the scene of the tragedy, and vowed that his government  “will thoroughly investigate the cause of the accident and make fundamental improvements so that similar accidents do not happen again in the future.”