23yo Sydney woman Grace Rached killed in South Korea
A young Australian has described his horror at watching his friend, from Sydney, crushed in the stampede at a Halloween event in central Seoul that killed 153 people in one of South Korea’s worst peacetime accidents.
The 23-year old Australian who died was due to celebrate her birthday next week.
Editor's note: This story contains graphic images
The Australian killed in the horrific Seoul stampede has been identified as 23-year-old Sydney woman, Grace Rached.
The Daily Telegraph reports that a friend of Miss Rached confirmed the production assistant was the Australian killed in the crush, saying “she was an incredible person and such a light in many people’s lives.”
Miss Rached, who would have celebrated her 24th birthday in November, was attending the Halloween celebration with three friends in Seoul’s Itaewon district on Saturday night, when she lost her life.
She was among an estimated 153 people killed in the crowd crush which occurred in a narrow downhill alley in the popular party district.
Another friend of Miss Rached, Australian man and survivor of the stampede, Nathan Taverniti, told Britain’s Daily Telegraph said there was almost no police presence before the tragedy unfolded.
Miss Rached had been travelling around the world, most recently posting from Bali and Mexico.
Packed precinct
Local media said as many as 100,000 people had packed into the area’s narrow alleyways and winding streets on Saturday evening.
Sydney man Nathan Taverniti said he was caught at the front of the “slow and agonising crush” that killed over 153 people in Seoul’s shopping district Itaewon.
“It wasn’t a fast thing it was almost slow and gradual,” he said.
“I was where people fell down at the front stopping people moving out and the crush happening above”.
In an emotional post on TikTok, Mr Taverniti described trying and failing to pull his friend from the stampede, and blamed a lack of police for the tragedy. “I was there when she said she couldn’t breathe and I grabbed one of my friend’s hands,” he said, weeping. “There was no stampede, it was a slow and agonising crush.”
Mr Taverniti said people were dancing, singing and laughing while his friends were being “crushed to death”.
His friend, who was due to celebrate her 24th birthday next week, was among 19 foreigners who died in the tragedy.
Mr Taverniti said the crush was not caused by “drunk people” but was the result of a “lack of planning, police and emergency services”.
He said police took over an hour to arrive at the scene, with emergency services taking even longer.
“There were people lying on the ground getting CPR - not by health professionals - by random people,” he said.
“I am sad, I am devastated by the situation which could have so easily been avoided.”
He told the Telegraph UK that he could only see “maybe two police officers” at the scene.“ I was trying to help pull people out with my friends, but I knew I couldn’t help because there were too many people behind,” he said.
“I was there at the front (of the crowd) at a T-intersection. There were already so many people in front of me. A group of girls fell down and a group of people were trying to help them up. But there were waves of people coming in from both sides.
“I turned around and told the crowd, you can’t come this way, people are dying, because I already knew how bad it was and people were being so rude and I had to tell them you can’t come this way.”
A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed the woman’s death late on Sunday.
“The Australian Embassy in Seoul has been notified of the death of an Australian at the tragic event in Seoul,” the spokesman said in a statement.
“Consular officers from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade are providing consular assistance to the individual’s family in Australia.
“Consular officials are also assisting a number of other Australians who were present at the event.”
Mr Taverniti told Yonhap News Agency that they were together at the Itaewon alley at the time of the crowd surge.
“I just can’t believe it. I was in the front of where it happened,” Mr Taverniti said, wiping away tears.
“All I could see was a wall of people … it was impossible [to save her].”
Speaking in front of Soonchunhyang University Hospital where many of the victims had been taken, he described crawling from a scrum of distressed people, calling in vain for assistance.
“People need to know how bad it was and how little help there was … Nobody was paying attention.”
Mr Taverniti said he not been able to get any information on the whereabouts of his friend’s body since he saw her taken away on a stretcher.
“I can’t find any info, phone number for missing people … the (Australian) consulate doesn’t know where she is,” he said.
“Her family’s in Australia, so I’m the guardian, but they wouldn’t let me see her.”
Some local media reports said the crush happened after part of the crowd surged toward a bar that a celebrity was visiting. Officials have not commented on those reports.
Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol declared a period of national mourning and vowed to investigate what had gone wrong.
“We had a tragedy last night at the centre of Seoul during Halloween that should have not occurred,” said President Yoon.
“As the president in charge of the people’s life and safety, my heart is heavy and the sadness unbearable.”
Mr Yoon on Sunday morning surveyed the site of the tragedy where at least 151 people were killed, with many of the hospitalised victims in critical condition. Most of those killed were in their teens and twenties. Officials said 97 were women, and 54 were men.
Nineteen were foreign nationals, including at least four from China, and others from Iran, Uzbekistan and Norway. Officials said about 10 people were still to be identified.
Australian diplomatic officials in Seoul on Sunday morning said they were making “urgent inquiries” to find out if any Australians were involved.
“We ask all Australians in Seoul to check in with friends and family to let them know your whereabouts,” said Australia’s Ambassador Catherine Raper.
In a message sent before the young Australian’s death was confirmed, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia sent “our sincere condolences for all affected by this terrible tragedy.”
Eye witnesses described scrambling to get out of the suffocating crowd as people ended up piling on top of one another, with paramedics, quickly overwhelmed by the number of victims, asking passers-by to administer first aid.
“There were so many people just being pushed around and I got caught in the crowd and I couldn’t get out at first too,” 30-year-old Jeon Ga-eul said. “I felt like an accident was bound to happen.”
Photos from the scene showed scores of bodies spread on the pavement covered by bed sheets and emergency workers dressed in orange vests loading even more bodies on stretchers into ambulances.
“People were layered on top of others like a tomb. Some were gradually losing their consciousness while some looked dead by that point,” one eyewitness told the Yonhap News Agency.
In an interview with local broadcaster YTN, Lee Beom-suk, a doctor who administered first aid to the victims described scenes of tragedy and chaos.
“When I first attempted CPR there were two victims lying on the pavement. But the number exploded soon after, outnumbering first responders at the scene,” Lee said. “Many bystanders came to help us with CPR.”
“It’s hard to put in words to describe,” he added. “So many victims’ faces were pale. I could not catch their pulse or breath and many of them had a bloody nose. When I tried CPR, I also pumped blood out of their mouths.”
US ‘stands with’ South Korea
Videos of the scenes in Itaewon shortly before the stampede began showed hundreds of young people, some clad in pirate, cowboy and other Halloween costumes, in a narrow street lined with bars and cafes.
Witnesses said a group of young men started pushing into one another, leading many young people to topple “like dominoes”.
This year’s celebration was the first since the pandemic broke out in 2020 at which South Koreans have not been mandated to wear face masks outdoors.
Ju Young Possamai, a bartender in the Itaewon district, said he was stunned by the tragedy.
“It’s always crowded, but nothing like this has ever happened before,” he said.
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, who was on a visit to Europe. He immediately boarded a plane home as the President said an investigation would take place into what had happened.
Emergency first aid
At the scene, which had been cordoned off by the police and was bathed in the red from hundreds of flashing lights, music continued to play from some bars on Saturday night.
Dazed passers-by sat on the sidewalk, checking their phones. Others comforted themselves, hugging each other even as others – seemingly unaware of the scale of the tragedy that had unfolded just next to them – continued to celebrate.
With AFP
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