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[Bulsajo]

Stampede at South Korean concert kills 11
03 Oct 2005 17:25:15 GMT

Source: Reuters

(Updates number of injured, previous SEOUL)

By Lee Jae-won

SANGJU, South Korea, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Thousands of people stampeded at a holiday music concert in South Korea on Monday, killing 11 and injuring 76 others, rescue officials said.

More than 5,000 surged to enter one of the gates at a stadium in the southern city of Sangju, and those waiting at the front fell and were crushed, the organiser of the concert, the broadcaster MBC, said in a news report.

All 11 killed were elderly women or children, MBC and rescue officials said.

"We have people who injured their heads or chests or have broken bones," a nurse at Sangju Red Cross Hospital said by telephone. "We have some old women here who were killed."

Seventy-six people were injured in the accident, the head of Sangju's fire and rescue emergency centre, Lee Tae-hyung, told YTN television. He said he did not think the death toll would rise much more.

A witness said the crowd had been waiting for two hours and was becoming visibly impatient when one of the gates opened.

"When the gate opened, the crowd surged with a roar," witness Shin Dong-won told YTN television.

The news reports said the stadium's capacity was 10,000 but 30,000 people were waiting to get in. Lee, the rescue official, said capacity was 25,000. The concert was to be taped for MBC.

The concert had top billings of South Korean singers who were popular with older audiences. Such concerts are often held on public holidays. Monday was Foundation Day, marking the legendary date of the founding of Korea in 2333 BC.

MBC said crowd control had been contracted out to a private security firm. It offered condolences to the victims' families without accepting direct responsibility.

Shin, the witness, said people in the crowd at the scene were squeezed tightly before the gates opened and kept moving to the front as the wait prolonged.

"Then there was an announcement that the gates would open, and the crowd surged, and it looked as if the gate was bending," he said on YTN. "Old women and children in the front fell."

Sangju is an old city in countryside about two hours' drive southeast of Seoul. It has a population of 120,000 and is surrounded by rich agricultural land producing rice and persimmons, according to the city's English-language website (http://www.sangju.go.kr/eng/). (Additional reporting by Jack Kim in Seoul)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP179450.htm


11 Killed in Concert Stampede in Sangju

By Yoon Won-sup
Staff Reporter
Yonhap

Eleven people were trampled to death and 50 others injured in a stampede Monday when they tried to enter a stadium for a concert in Sangju, North Kyongsang Province, police said.
The stampede occurred at 5:41 p.m. near an entrance to the stadium where about 5,000 people were in line waiting for the concert organized by MBC, a local television network.

Kang Mi-kyung, a 21-year-old Sangju resident who witnessed the stampede, said that the elderly in the front row waiting to enter the stadium fell right after the gate opened. They were trampled by those behind them, she said.

The deceased were immediately taken to two nearby hospitals, and the injured were given emergency treatment in other hospitals of the city.

Park Yun-sok, an official with the city government's disaster management division, said the number of the dead could rise by one or two because some of the injured are in a serious condition.

The victims were mostly elderly and children as they were all either in their 50s or older, or children younger than 14.

At the time of the accident, there were 100 security personnel, including 30 police and 70 people from the event agency, who were responsible for keeping the stadium gates closed until the concert began.

Police said they are still trying to find out why the entrance was not opened in advance.

Though the exact cause of the stampede is still being investigated, the police have tentatively concluded things were ``just out of control.����

Park said that the stadium could accommodate up to 20,000 people, brushing aside speculation that the accident occurred because of a lack of seating capacity.

About 10,000 people were waiting outside the stadium, as the concert was a rare event for the citizens living in the southern part of the nation.

Canceling the planned concert, MBC issued a statement apologizing for the tragedy.

The concert, which was supposed to begin at 7 p.m., came at the end of a three-day festival aimed at promoting the use of bicycles in Sangju City, 270 kilometers southeast of Seoul.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200510/kt2005100323010411950.htm

[jinglejangle]

That's too bad.
Hope that those other folks heal up ok.