SEOUL, South Korea (AP) 鈥 As he watched a dozen or more unconscious partygoers carried out from a narrow backstreet packed with youngsters dressed like movie characters, an overwhelmed Ken Fallas couldn鈥檛 process what was happening.
Fallas, a Costa Rican architect who has worked in Seoul for the past eight years, said Saturday鈥檚 Halloween festivities at were a long-awaited occasion to hang out with fellow expats following years of COVID-19 restrictions
Instead, the 32-year-old became a front-row witness to South Korea has seen.
The following the shows groups of Halloween revelers carrying out their unconscious peers, one after another, from an alley near Hamilton Hotel, passing by throngs of people dressed in capes and Miyazaki movie costumes. Some people are seen administrating CPR to injured people on the pavement while others shout for help above blaring dance music.
Fallas said police and emergency workers were constantly pleading with people to step up if they knew how to give CPR because they were overwhelmed by the large number of the injured laid out on the street.
鈥淚 saw a lot of (young) people laughing, but I don鈥檛 think they were (really) laughing because, you know, what鈥檚 funny?鈥 Fallas said. 鈥淭hey were laughing because they were too scared. Because to be in front of a thing like that is not easy. Not everyone knows how to process that.鈥
Fallas said he and his friends were trapped among the huge throngs of people pushing toward the alley when police officers began breaking the lines from behind to approach the injured. He said people near his group didn鈥檛 initially know what was happening.
鈥淲e were we were unable to move back. The music was loud. Nobody knew what was happening. People were still partying with the emergency happening in front of us,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e were like, 鈥榃hat鈥檚 going on from here, where we can go?鈥 There was no exit.鈥
