If Seoul Police Were Responsive To 11 Incoming Emergency Calls

Location for the celebration of Itaewon Halloween, Seoul, South Korea. (Twitter/@historieente)

JAKARTA - Regret is always coming late. If the police in Seoul were responsive to the 11 incoming emergency calls, perhaps, it is possible that the casualties in the Itaewon Tragedy could have been prevented or minimized.

So a few hours or minutes before the Itaewon Tragedy – which has claimed 156 lives, at least until this news is read – 11 emergency calls went to the police.

The content is about panic, worry, and fear of the caller seeing the hectic Halloween party. They asked the police to intervene immediately.

The first call that appeared occurred at 6:34 p.m. local time, Saturday 29 October. That means about four hours before the tragedy occurred.

"Looks like you could be crushed to death with people continuing to come here while there's no room for people to get off," said a resident on the first call.

"I barely managed to leave but there were too many people it looks like you have to come and control."

This transcript has been released by the South Korean police as quoted by Channel News Asia, Tuesday, November 1. From this transcript, it can be seen about how the tragedy will unfold.

Police received another 10 similar calls before the chaos was found to be fatal.

"People are falling on the streets, looks like an accident is about to happen, looks very dangerous," another caller said at 8:33 p.m., according to a police transcript.

The last call issued by the police came in at 10:11 pm, a few minutes before the crowd of people in an alley started tumbling over each other just before 10:30 pm.

"(People) will be crushed to death here. It's a mess," the transcript of the call said, noting that screams were heard over the phone.

Police went to the scene for four of the 11 calls, a police official told reporters. It was not immediately clear why they did not deploy officers on another call or what security measures they took upon arrival.

National Police Commissioner General Yoon Hee-keun on Tuesday admitted crowd control at the scene was inadequate. He also noted police had received numerous reports warning of possible accidents on the eve of the disaster.

The minister of home affairs and mayor have also apologized.