South Korea Halloween crush: police officials jailed over 'man-made' tragedy

30/9/2024 19:04

        A South Korean court on Monday sentenced the former police chief of a district of Seoul to three years in prison for a botched response to a deadly
        Halloween crowd crush in the capital's Itaewon nightlife district in 2022.
        
        Yongsan police station chief Lee Im-jae is the first senior police official to be convicted over the crush, which led to 159 deaths nearly two years ago.
        
        Lee had failed to prepare for a mass Halloween gathering whose dangers he should have foreseen, thus creating the conditions for the Itaewon tragedy, the Seoul Western District Court said in a statement.
        
        The Itaewon deaths shocked a nation still scarred by the 2014 sinking of a ferry, the Sewol, that killed 304 people including 250 children on a school trip.