Itaewon Crowd Crush: 10% of Victims May Not Have Died from Suffocation, Committee Says

SEOUL, July 21 (Yonhap) -- About 10 percent of the more than 100 people killed in the 2022 deadly crowd crush in Seoul's Itaewon district may have died from causes other than suffocation, a special investigation committee said Tuesday.

The analysis, released by the committee investigating the 2022 crowd crush, suggests that more lives could have been saved had more active rescue efforts been made immediately after the accident.

The accident dates back to Oct. 29, 2022, when 159 people were crushed to death during Halloween festivities after crowds surged into a narrow alley in the entertainment district.

After conducting a medical review of the causes of the deaths, the committee announced Tuesday that 15 of the victims did not appear to have died from suffocation, concluding that their exact causes of death could not be identified.

The review results suggested that the 15 victims may have died from intra-abdominal bleeding or other syndromes caused by pressures on muscles or internal organs.

Kim Moon-young, a forensic pathologist who presented the findings, said that while suffocation often causes immediate death, victims who died from other causes could have survived for several hours or even days had more active rescue efforts been made.

"The findings provide important evidence that rescue efforts should be carried out proactively even if the initial rescue response is delayed," she said.

The findings, however, were based on external examinations rather than autopsies, Kim said, citing the inherent difficulties in determining the exact causes and timings of the victims' deaths.