South Korean protesters rallied in downtown Seoul on Friday as around 20,000 police officers stood in anticipation of potential violent clashes.
At least two South Korean protesters died on Friday at a street rally staged by ousted President Park Geun-hye’s supporters in central Seoul, local police said.
« We confirm that two protesters against upholding impeachment have died, » Lim Jae Beom, an officer at the public relations office of Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, said.
They were heard singing the national anthem, and saying the president should have been protected from the impeachment ruling. Several individuals also broke through police cordons, clambered on cars and buses that had been parked as a barrier, then used ladders to get from one bus to another. Some were carried away from the scene, with little resistance.
Many of Park’s backers were elderly or middle aged, and two people received first-aid emergency procedures.
The national police agency had raised their alert level to the highest ahead of Friday’s ruling amid elevated public anger towards the embattled head of state. Since news of the scandal broke in October, mass street demonstrations have rocked Asia’s fourth-largest economy.
