Investigators in the case of the riot that killed 156 people during a Halloween party in South Korea raided police stations in Seoul on Wednesday (2).
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said investigators entered eight of its offices and took internal reports and documents related to complaints made by members of the public to the 112 emergency hotline.
Among the offices was the Yongsan District Police Station, which oversees nightlife in the Itaewon neighborhood where the crush took place.
The raids on police stations came as Korean authorities face mounting public pressure and fury, with witnesses saying there was little to no crowd control in Itaewon on the night of the crush – despite the police receiving well-advance warning.
Saturday’s deadly riot took place in a section of narrow alleyways, where witnesses described being unable to move or breathe as crowds gathered on a street less than 4 meters wide. It has since been revealed that members of the public had called police to warn of overcrowding hours before the first deaths were reported.
Wednesday’s raids were carried out by a special investigation unit created just a day earlier by the National Police Agency to investigate the disaster.
The agency said on Wednesday it had suspended the head of the Yongsan police station, one of the police stations closest to the crash site.
“Boss Lee Im-jae cannot continue to carry out his normal duties given the situation,” the agency said, adding that his successor would be announced later the same day.
Records provided to CNN by the National Police Agency show that officers received at least 11 calls from people in Itaewon worried about the possibility of crowd crushing four hours before the incident occurred.
The first call took place at 18:34, when a caller warned: “It seems very dangerous… I fear that people could be crushed”.
Another call less than two hours later asked traffic control, saying there were so many people crammed into Itaewon’s narrow alleys that they were falling and hurting themselves.
In a press conference on Tuesday, the head of the National Police Agency, Yoon Hee-keun, admitted for the first time that the police made mistakes in their response.
“There were a number of reports on the police emergency hotline indicating the severity of the (situation) shortly before the accident occurred,” he said. “According to reports, a large crowd had gathered prior to the accident and reports from the police emergency hotline were (informed of the danger).”
He added that the police response to emergency calls was “inadequate” and that he felt a “great responsibility” as head of the agency.
It was at Tuesday’s press conference that he announced the creation of the special investigative unit that carried out the raids on Wednesday.
The unit would “reveal the truth transparently,” Yoon promised.
Other government bodies also admitted to being unprepared. The Interior Ministry said on Monday that there were no guidelines for dealing with the surge in crowds because it was not caused by a single event with a single organizer.
“One of the reasons (for the disaster) was the lack of deep institutional knowledge and consideration for crowd management,” Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said on Tuesday.
He added that even if more police had been deployed, they might have been ineffective because “we don’t have a crowd management system.”
Source: CNN Brasil

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