Investigators Look To Press Charges Against Officials Over Seoul Crushing

South Korean Police are pushing for criminal charges against a number of officers and officials over the horrific crush which killed close to 160 people.

The South Korean Police are looking to press charges including involuntary manslaughter against around 23 officials and law enforcement officers claiming negligence.

It is alleged that the officials and officers were aware that around 100,000 people were expected the night of the crush, despite only assigning 137 officers to monitor the event at Itaewon, Seoul.

It is believed that these officers were assigned to the area to watch for illegal drug use and potential fights. 

Police are claiming that by assigning a majority of these officers to watch for narcotics and violence, there were not enough officials tasked with monitoring the safety of pedestrians. 

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Investigators spearheading the investigation into the crush are looking to indict mayor of Seoul’s Yongsan district Park Hee-young and former police chief Lee Im-jae. 

The two men along with four others have been arrested in relation to the horrific tragedy.

Police will allege that Lee intentionally doctored official police reports to hide the fact that he arrived on the scene later than what he had claimed, while two other officers have been arrested for allegedly destroying digital files and other evidence. 

The extensive investigation into the incident reflects negligence. By officers who are alleged to have ignored several calls from concerned pedestrians warning of dangerous crowd numbers.

National Police Agency’s special investigation officer Son Je-han said a statement to the media that officials failed to respond appropriately to the incident.

"(Their) inaccurate judgement of the situation, the slow distribution of information about the situation, poor cooperation between related institutions and delays in rescue operations were among the overlapping failures that caused the high number of casualties," he said.

The incident unfolded at around 9PM on October 28 during Halloween festivities in Seoul, when a massive crowd of people became trapped in a narrow alleyway.

People began collapsing and becoming crushed by other pedestrians as the wave of people grew out of control at around 10:15PM.

This resulted in the deaths of 158 people and the serious injury of 196 people.

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