"I Feel Like I'm Going to Be Crushed" — Zero Dispatches Despite 11 Emergency Calls

[Anchor]

Two days ahead of the 4th anniversary of the Itaewon disaster, the special investigation committee has released its interim findings. The committee pointed out that the responses from related agencies, including the police and fire authorities, were comprehensively inadequate despite a flurry of emergency calls at the time of the disaster. It also stated plans to directly investigate former President Yoon Suk Yeol at the detention center as the ultimate person in responsibility.

Reporting by Park Se-won.

[Reporter]

The Itaewon disaster occurred in October 2022, when 159 people died in a crowd crush during Halloween events in Itaewon, Seoul.

The special investigation committee, releasing its interim investigation results four years after the accident, first pointed out the police's failure in on-site management.

While 120 police officers were deployed to the area at the time, 49 of them were plainclothes detectives for drug enforcement, and not a single mobile police unit was deployed to manage the crowd, according to the findings.

It was also found that a total of 11 emergency calls were received that night, starting with the first call warning, "I feel like I'm going to be crushed," but not a single dispatch was made.

This directly contradicts previous police claims that they were dispatched to the scene in four of those cases.

[Wi Eun-jin / Standing Commissioner, Special Investigation Commission on the Itaewon Disaster: The committee concluded that there is a possibility there were victims who could have been saved if rescue and emergency measures had been properly carried out.]

The fire authorities activated the emergency rescue control center 58 minutes after the first call, and a Yongsan-gu district official arrived at the scene an hour after the disaster occurred while removing flyers.

The committee pointed out that there were also gaps in the judgment and command of the competent ministries.

It took the Ministry of the Interior and Safety 43 minutes to recognize the situation and make the first report to the minister, and the initial meeting was held at 10:00 AM the day after the disaster.

Furthermore, it was found that during the first meeting, then-Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min, concerned that the state could be held accountable, decided to change the terminology from a "disaster" to an "accident," and from "victims" to the "deceased."

[Lee Sang-min / Former Minister of the Interior and Safety (October 30, 2022): We understand that this was not a problem that could have been resolved by deploying police or fire personnel in advance, unlike usual.]

Following today's (October 27) announcement, as the committee members did not take questions, bereaved families protested against the format of the proceedings.

[You said you would be transparent, and now the members are just leaving?]

The committee stated that its remaining tasks are to uncover additional facts and summon key responsible parties for questioning.

The committee, whose activities run until September of next year, plans to pursue visits to the detention center to investigate former President Yoon and former Minister Lee.

(Camera: Joo Yong-jin | Video Editing: Yoon Tae-ho | Graphics: Seo Hyun-joong)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.