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South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Monday promised a thorough investigation into the Halloween crush over the weekend that killed more than 150 mostly young people in the capital and plunged the country into mourning.
Officials said the death toll had risen overnight to 154 with 149 injured, 33 of them in serious condition.
Tens of thousands of party-goers had crowded into narrow streets and alleyways of Seoul’s popular Itaewon district on Saturday for the first virtually unrestricted Halloween festivities in three years. Many of the revelers were in their teens and dressed in costume.
But chaos erupted when people poured into one particularly narrow and sloping alley, even after it was already packed, witnesses said.
On Monday morning, people laid white chrysanthemums, drinks and candles at a small makeshift altar off an exit of the Itaewon subway station, a few steps away from the site of the crush.
“It doesn’t matter how they died, or why they died.
