South Korea mourns, wants answers after Halloween crush kills 153
Rescue officials load a stretcher with a victim of a Halloween crush, which left at least 150 people dead, into an ambulance in the district of Itaewon in Seoul on October 30, 2022. Anthony Wallace | AFP | Getty Images Shocked family members collected bodies, parents searched for children and a country sought answers on Sunday after at least 153 people were crushed to death when a crowd in South Korea surged in an alleyway during Halloween festivities. President Yoon Suk-yeol declared a period of national mourning and designated Seoul’s popular Itaewon district a disaster zone after the Saturday night disaster. “This news came like a bolt from the blue sky,” said a father who burst into tears as he collected his daughter’s body from a morgue in the nation’s capital. A huge crowd celebrating in Itaewon surged into an alley, killing at least 153 people, most of them in their 20s, emergency officials said, adding the death toll could rise. The partiers, some still in their teens a