South Korean President, Yoon Suk-yeol, has declared a period of national mourning following a deadly Halloween crush that killed about 151 people in the country’s capital, Seoul.

Distraught relatives of the victims flocked to the city’s hospitals to search for their family members.

Yoon offered his condolences to the victims who are mostly teenagers and people in their 20s and wished those injured a speedy recovery.

“This is truly tragic,” he said in a statement. “A tragedy and disaster that should not have happened in the heart of Seoul last night.”

“The government will designate the period from today until the accident is brought under control as a period of national mourning,” Yoon said.

Head of the Yongsan Fire Station, Choi Sung-beom said 151 deaths had been confirmed, including 19 foreigners. He added that 82 people have been confirmed injured.

The Yonhap news agency said the disaster happened shortly after 10pm (13:00GMT) when a huge crowd flocked a narrow alley near the Hamilton Hotel, making the incident one of the deadliests in South Korean history.

The cause of the crush was not immediately clear, though some local media said it happened after a large group of people rushed to a bar in the area after hearing an unidentified celebrity visited there.

Witnesses described scrambling to get out of the suffocating crowd in the downhill alley as people ended up piling on top of one another.

“People kept pushing down into a downhill club alley, resulting in other people screaming and falling down like dominos.

“I thought I would be crushed to death too as people kept pushing without realizing there were people falling down at the start of the stampede,” one unidentified witness relayed.

“There were so many people just being pushed around and I got caught in the crowd and I couldn’t get out at first too,” 30-year-old Jeon Ga-eul told the AFP news agency.

U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden have also sent their condolences.

They wrote, “We grieve with the people of the Republic of Korea and send our best wishes for a quick recovery to all those who were injured.”

In the same vein, British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, tweeted, “All our thoughts are with those currently responding and all South Koreans at this very distressing time.”

With the easing of the Covid pandemic, curfews on bars and restaurants and a limit of 10 people for private gatherings were lifted in April. An outdoor mask mandate was dropped in May.

The event was the first Halloween event in Seoul in three years after the country lifted Covid-19 restrictions and social distancing. Many of the partygoers were wearing masks and Halloween costumes.

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