Actor and Pop singer, Lee Jihan has been confirmed dead in a crowd during a Halloween celebration in Seoul, South Korea, over the weekend. His agency, 935 Entertainment, affirmed the sad news on Sunday, October 30, “Li Ji Han indeed passed away on October 29 due to an accident in Itaewon.”
The agency representative said, ‘We also expected this was false, and we were very surprised and shocked to hear the news.’ Asking the public to respect the family’s privacy during this mourning period, the agency said, ‘The family is suffering a lot right now, so we are very cautious.
Mourners pay tribute to victims of a deadly accident following Saturday night’s Halloween festivities on the street near the scene of a stampede in Seoul, South Korea, October 31, 2022.
Hours before dozens of Halloween partygoers died after getting crushed in one of South Korea’s most lethal disasters happen in a decade.
A private security guard, Maeng Geun-Yeong who works at a nearby bar, says he felt something was not right around the area.
He was posted near Prost Pub & Grill which is directly above the tiny alley where the horrific stampede occurred, was not surprised at the crowd size – around 100,000 people were gathered in Itaewon, according to media estimates.
It was Halloween weekend — the wildest party night of the year in one of Seoul’s biggest entertainment districts – and young people Saturday night seemed eager to let loose after over two years of social distancing.
What caught Maeng’s attention was the absence of crowd control in the long path outside his pub, which is lined with nightclubs, restaurants, and karaoke bars. According to videos posted on social media, some areas were so dense it appeared difficult to move, long before the crush began.
The situation was so chaotic that the security guard said he warned his friends to avoid the area. Not only did he see no police patrolling outside his bar, officers never responded to calls when two women in the pub sustained minor leg injuries in an incident about two hours before the crowd surge, he said.