Horror at Halloween in Seoul – stampede takes more than 150 lives

It was a day of sorrow in Seoul as more than 151 people died and more than 150 suffered injuries during Halloween celebrations. The venue was the Itaewon neighborhood famous for its crowded narrow streets. Dozens of people had cardiac arrests. An official of the fire brigade mentioned about dispatching more than 140 ambulances to the scene of the tragedy. 19 foreigners from Iran, Uzbekistan, China and Norway lost their lives in the stampede. Incidentally, Itaewon is a popular destination for people to celebrate Halloween in the South Korean capital. The incident apparently occurred because of a crush that resulted from the size of the crowd. Yoon Suk-yeol, the President of South Korea ordered officials to dispatch first aid teams and for hospital beds to be immediately available. South Korea declares national mourning after 151 killed in Halloween stampede. Media photographs showed many people lying prone on a street cordoned off by authorities as rescue workers tended to them. They carried out emergency first aid on several victims

Video footage showed yellow-jacketed policemen cordoning off the area around the site of the crush as rescue officials loaded the victims into ambulances. Blankets covered some of them. Nearly two dozen people were entirely covered by makeshift blankets on the roadside. South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered a thorough investigation. He said such a deadly stampede at the Halloween event "should not have happened." In his national address he said - "In the centre of Seoul, a tragedy and disaster occurred that should not have happened." He also announced a period of national mourning and ordered the lowering of flags. In his words - “The government will designate the period from today until the accident is brought under control as a period of national mourning and will place top priority in administrative affairs in recovery and follow-up measures.”

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Iran is apparently getting ready to launch a new long-range rocket into outer space as soon as this weekend. This missile is known as a Simorgh and officials have indicated that they have not seen this specific type of rocket launched in the past. Incidentally, any test of a new ballistic missile would be in violation of a UN resolution that forbids Iran from working on its rocket program.
The Somorgh rocket was first unveiled in 2010.
This has been reported in foxnews.com dated 11 March 2016.

A Simorgh rocket is designed to carry a satellite into space and officials are concerned because any space launch uses the same technology that is needed to launch a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile or ICBM. Iran has launched multiple ballistic missiles on one day for the first time since 2012 as revealed by defense officials.
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The U.S. State Department, of course, has said that the recent launches were not in violation of the nuclear deal, but it was “inconsistent” with UN Security Council Resolution 2231 since that was linked to the nuclear deal when it went into effect.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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