Tributes pour in for Seoul stampede victims

Lack of awareness

Shin Dong-min, a professor in the emergency medical service department at Korea National University of Transportation, said Saturday's accident was a man-made disaster prompted by a lack of safety awareness.

"Itaewon vendors and government officials should have had more preparations about a massive crowd gathering," Shin said.

Witnesses said people were pushing from behind while walking in the crowds.

A Chinese student surnamed Zhao told Hong Kong television broadcaster TVB: "I could feel that people were pushing from the back, and the force became increasingly stronger. Some people were becoming more and more excited … and many were screaming."

To avoid the crowd, Zhao, who had dinner with his friends at around 8pm, went to an upstairs bar before the tragedy occurred.

He said he only saw police arriving after the accident happened, with the emergency team taking 30 minutes to get to the scene.

Another Chinese student, using the nickname Gu Lu Lu Xiao Zhu, posted on social media that she was in the middle of the crowd just before the accident happened.

"It was difficult to stand on my own, and I could barely breathe," she said in the post. As she walked along a wall and tried to get away, people around her began to fall down.

After being escorted to a main road, she saw people lying on the ground, as a stream of ambulances arrived at the scene.

"I will never go to Itaewon again," she said.