A young man broke into tears as he recalled his friend dying in agony during the Saturday crowd crush in South Korea.
At least 153 died and more than 82 were injured on Saturday night after an overpacked crowd that gathered in the Itaewon district in central Seoul to celebrate Halloween after years of Covid restrictions and lockdowns broke into a stampede.
According to the reports, the narrow streets in the nightlife area were packed with tens of thousands of people in the moments leading to the disaster.
As more and more revelers arrived in the area and pushed forward, the crowd became increasingly agitated and unruly and a human crush ensued.
Among the survivors of the tragic event is Nathan Taverniti from Australia who attended the celebration together with three friends – one of whom was killed in the crush.
“I was there when she said she couldn’t breathe and I grabbed one of my friend’s hands,” the young man revealed in his TikTok post as he opened up about his female friend’s final moments.
“There was no stampede, it was a slow and agonizing crush.”
Speaking to the local media, Taverniti, who is now watching over his friend’s body pending return to Australia, said he couldn’t do anything to save his friend.
“All I could see was a wall of people … it was impossible (to save her).”
Taverniti went on to blame the lack of police presence and planning for the deadly Halloween celebration.
“I watched as people filmed and sang and laughed while my friends were dying among with many other people. I was there trying to pull people out because there was not enough police officers and nobody was doing anything to make the crowd stop,” he said.
“We were yelling, saying ‘you have to turn around, you have to go back, people are dying’ but nobody was listening.
“I waited 30 minutes for the police to arrive where I was. It took over an hour for more police to arrive and even longer for emergency services.”
Meanwhile, 27-year-old Olivia Jacovic, who lives in Seoul but is originally from West Australia, spoke to Channel Nine and recalled the moment she and her friends nearly got trampled by the crowd.
“It was really hard, I had bruises on my arms from trying to maneuver out but we got on the sidelines luckily and we were standing up on this brick wall and we could see above,” she explained.
“It was just shoulder-to-shoulder, people couldn’t breathe the shorter people were trying to look up in the air to get some air.”
Our hearts go out to the families and friends of the victims.
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