SOUTH KOREA Seoul, abusive construction as one of the possible causes of the Halloween tragedy

In the Itaewon tragedy, which cost the lives of 156 people, some hotel structures built without permits, which supposedly narrowed the alley where the young people crushed in the stampede, are also being investigated. For his part, President Yoon met with religious leaders to seek advice on the best way to respond to the pain caused by the tragedy that affects the entire country.

Seoul (asiaNews) – At the end of the week of national mourning, South Korea begins the painful search for those responsible for the October 29 massacre in Seoul during the Halloween celebrations. When the tragedy occurred and in the days that followed, 156 people died, mostly young people in their twenties who fell on top of each other and were crushed in a very narrow alley, due to excessive overcrowding in the Itaewon neighborhood during the nightly festivities that night.

yesterday morning a group of researchers showed up at the Hamilton hotel, along whose perimeter walls is the steep alley where the events occurred. The authorities requested that they be given the documents corresponding to the plans of the building, as well as the administrative permits. According to those plans, in fact, some parts of the hotel would have been built without authorization.

In recent days, many people have pointed to a structure attached to the hotel as one of the factors that turned the alley into a death trap on Halloween night. According to the regulations in force in South Korea, pedestrian alleys must be a minimum of 4 meters wide, precisely to guarantee the safety of passers-by. However, the hotel’s expansion (with what many suspect was an unauthorized addition) created a bottleneckreducing the width of the adjacent alley to 3.2 meters.

The Yonhap news agency reports on a document, issued by the authorities of the capital, according to which in 2014 the hotel was ordered to demolish the abusive extensions. The order was never carried out, so the hotel management has since incurred fines totaling 500 million won (approximately 363,000 euros).

For his part, the mayor of Seoul has asked local officials to take strict measures against unauthorized construction. Some of these will be cited by the investigators to verify if the district authorities are also responsible for the abusive expansion of the hotel.

Investigators’ main goal at this time is to determine if and to what extent the added abusive structure contributed to the tragedy. Yesterday morning the investigators also appeared at the home of the facility manager and the police opened a formal investigation against him, with accusations of illegal construction and unauthorized use of public roads for private purposes.

In the meantime, however, the police themselves are under investigation. From the first hours after the tragedy it was clear that the police had not been able to maintain security in the neighborhood despite numerous calls from citizens to denounce the dangerous situation. In the last days has been incriminated six officials, including the Seoul police emergency officer, who was on duty that night, and the police chief of the district where the incidents occurred.

President Yoon Suk-yeol has had several meetings these days with religious leaders to reflect together on the best way to help the country overcome this tragedy. Among these personalities are the Archbishop of Seoul, Msgr. Peter Chung Soon-taick, and his predecessor, Card. Andrew Yeom Soo-jung. As reported by the work team of the Korean president, Bishop Chung, recognized the commitment of recent days to share the pain of the families of the victims and asked the country’s authorities to do everything possible to prevent similar tragedies. For his part, Cardinal Yeom said that he prayed that the people they rule can learn to look at his people with the same gaze as a father looks at his children.