There were few police officers around as a mass of revelers swelled. From within the crowd came calls to “push, push” and a big shove, according to witnesses. Then, they began to fall.
One teenager and her friend were engulfed by the crowd but managed to crawl out, were pulled into a tavern by adults, then escaped by inching along alley walls.
Images showed firefighters carrying what looked like bodies covered with white sheets on stretchers to ambulances in the popular Itaewon neighborhood in Seoul.