120,000 gather in Seoul's Hongdae area for Halloween; 20,000 in Itaewon: data

SEOUL, Oct. 31 (Yonhap) -- Up to 120,000 people gathered in the bustling Hongdae district Saturday to mark Halloween, while 20,000 gathered in Itaewon, the site of a deadly crowd crush in 2022, Seoul city data showed.

According to real-time data provided by the Seoul metropolitan government, around 18,000 to 20,000 people were in the Itaewon area as of 7 p.m. The area remained "crowded," with visitors in their 20s accounting for 38.3 percent of the total.

The crowd in the Hongdae district was estimated at between 115,000 and 120,000, with the area remaining "very crowded."

Police earlier vowed to deploy around 7,800 personnel nationwide to manage crowds celebrating Halloween over the weekend, including at 14 key locations in Seoul.

Some visitors in Itaewon were also seen laying flowers to pay tribute to the victims.

On Oct. 29, 2022, 159 people were killed in the country's worst-ever crowd crush in Seoul's Itaewon nightlife district during the Halloween weekend.