World

South Koreans flocked Monday to memorials honouring the 154 people killed in a crowd surge at Halloween celebrations, as authorities faced accusations that lax crowd control had caused the disaster.

Mourners wept, prayed and placed flowers at a huge official altar set up in central Seoul for victims — mostly young women — of the Saturday crush, with many railing against authorities’ failures to prevent the catastropic loss of young life.

“I am devastated by what happened, they were just trying to have a good time,” 19-year-old student Hwang Gyu-hyeon told AFP, weeping and struggling to speak clearly, as she explained how the deaths of so many people her own age had affected her.

“I pray for the victims. I can’t believe this accident happened despite the signs that were clear beforehand. Nothing was done to prepare for this crowd,” she said.

Song Jung-hee, 69, said she kept thinking about how “excited and spirited” the young victims must have been, eager to enjoy a night out without Covid restrictions for the first time in three years.

“If only there had been more police officers to keep order, this would not have happened,” she told AFP.

At a makeshift memorial outside a subway station in the popular Itaewon nightlife district, where the tragedy occurred, dozens of mourners gathered, many wiping away tears as they placed white chrysanthemum and bottles of soju on the altar.

One sign left at the memorial said: “At an age when you all were all about to blossom like flowers… My heart is broken. I pray all the souls will rest in peace in heaven.”

– Police failures? –

Calls for accountability were growing Monday in the press and online, as potential lapses of crowd control and policing emerged.

As many as 100,000 people — mostly in their teens and 20s, many wearing Halloween costumes — had poured into Itaewon’s small, winding streets, with eyewitnesses describing scant security and no crowd control.

Police said at a briefing Monday they had deployed 137 officers to the event, pointing out that the number was significantly higher than previous years.

But local reports said many of the police deployed were focused on drug use, rather than crowd control.

“This was a disaster that could have been controlled or prevented,” Lee Young-ju, a professor from the Department of Fire and Disaster at the University of Seoul, told broadcaster YTN.

“But this was not taken care of, with no one taking the responsibility in the first place.”

Online, claims also spread that police this year were not actively managing the crowd, which allowed too many people to congregate around the subway station and in the alleyway at the epicentre of the disaster.

“I’ve lived in Itaewon for 10 years and experienced Halloween every year but yesterday was by no means particularly crowded compared to previous years,” Twitter user @isakchoi312 wrote.

“Ultimately, I think the cause of the disaster was crowd control.”

On Sunday, the government had defended the policing plan.

“(The crush) was not a problem that could be solved by deploying police or firefighters in advance,” Interior Minister Lee Sang-min told a briefing.

South Korea is typically strong on crowd control, with the country’s regular protest rallies often so heavily policed that officers can outnumber participants.

Protest organisers must by law report plans to authorities in advance, but there were no such requirements for the young people flocking to the Itaewon Halloween event.

– Chaos, fear –

Tens of thousands of partygoers were packed into the downhill alleyway, no more than three metres (10 feet) wide, with eye-witnesses describing scenes of chaos, as people pushed and shoved to get through, with no police in sight to guide or control the crowd.

Witnesses described being trapped in a narrow, sloping alleyway, and scrambling to get out of the suffocating crowd as people piled on top of one another.

Most of the 154 dead, including 26 foreigners, had been identified Sunday, with the education ministry confirming Monday that at least six young teenagers were among the victims.

But the toll could rise further with at least 33 people in critical condition, officials said.

The country started a week of national mourning, with entertainment events and concerts cancelled and flags nationwide flying at half-mast.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol opened a memorial Monday for the 154 people killed in a crowd surge at Halloween celebrations, as authorities faced accusations that lax crowd control polices caused the disaster.

After the president and his wife laid single white flowers at the huge altar set up in central Seoul for victims — mostly young women — of the Saturday disaster, members of the public began arriving to pay their respects.

One man knelt down before the black altar, covered in neat rows of white flowers, and wept.

At a makeshift momorial outside a subway station in the popular Itaewon nightlife district, where the tragedy occurred, people also stopped to pray and lay flowers. 

Calls for accountability grew Monday in the press and online, as potential lapses of crowd control and policing emerged.

As many as 100,000 people — mostly in their teens and 20s, many wearing Halloween costumes — had poured into Itaewon’s small, winding streets, with eyewitnesses describing scant security and no crowd control.

Police said at a briefing Monday they had deployed 137 officers to the event, pointing out that number was significantly higher than previous years.

But local reports said most police deployed were focused on drug use, rather than crowd control.

“This was a disaster that could have been controlled or prevented,” Lee Young-ju, a professor from the Department of Fire and Disaster at the University of Seoul, told broadcaster YTN.

“But this was not taken care of, with no one taking the responsibility in the first place.”  

Online, claims also spread that police this year were not actively managing the crowd, which allowed too many people to congregate around the subway station and in the alleyway at the epicenter of the disaster.

“I’ve lived in Itaewon for 10 years and experienced Halloween every year but yesterday was by no means particularly crowded compared to previous years,” Twitter user @isakchoi312 wrote.

“Ultimately, I think the cause of the disaster was crowd control.”

On Sunday, the government had also defended the policing plan.

“(The crush) was not a problem that could be solved by deploying police or firefighters in advance,” Interior Minister Lee Sang-min told a briefing.

South Korea is typically strong on crowd control, with the country’s regular protest rallies often so heavily policed that officers can outnumber participants.

But protest organisers must by law report plans to authorities in advance, but there were no such requirements for the young people flocking to the Itaewon Halloween event.

– Chaos, fear –

Tens of thousands of partygoers were packed into the downhill alleyway, no more than three meters (10 feet) wide, with eye-witnesses describing scenes of chaos, as people pushed and shoved to get through, with no police in sight to guide or control the crowd.

Witnesses described being trapped in a narrow, sloping alleyway, and scrambling to get out of the suffocating crowd as people piled on top of one another.

Most of the 154 dead, including 26 foreigners, had been identified Sunday, with the education ministry confirming Monday that at least six young teenagers were among the victims.

But the toll could rise further with at least 33 people in critical condition, officials said.

The country started a week of national mourning, with entertainment events and concerts cancelled and flags nationwide flying at half mast.

Brazilian president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called for “peace and unity” after narrowly winning a divisive runoff election Sunday, capping a remarkable political comeback by defeating far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro — who has yet to accept defeat.

The victory marks a stunning turnaround for charismatic but tarnished leftist icon Lula, who left office in 2010 as the most popular president in Brazilian history, fell into disgrace when he was imprisoned for 18 months on controversial, since-quashed corruption charges, and now returns for an unprecedented third term at age 77.

All eyes will now be on how Bolsonaro and his supporters react to the result, after months of alleging — without evidence — that Brazil’s electronic voting system is plagued by fraud and that the courts, media and other institutions had conspired against his far-right movement.

“This country needs peace and unity,” Lula said to loud cheers in a victory speech in Sao Paulo.

“The challenge is immense,” he said of the job ahead of him, citing a hunger crisis, the economy, bitter political division, and deforestation in the Amazon.

He later addressed a tightly packed crowd of hundreds of thousands of supporters who flooded the city center clad in Workers’ Party red, vowing: “democracy is back.”

– ‘He hasn’t called yet’ –

Bolsonaro, 67, was silent in the hours after the result was declared.

“Anywhere in the world, the losing president would already have called to admit defeat. He hasn’t called yet, I don’t know if he will call and concede,” Lula told the massive crowd.

Some Bolsonaro supporters, gathered in the capital Brasilia, refused to accept the results.

“The Brazilian people aren’t going to swallow a faked election and hand our nation over to a thief,” said 50-year-old teacher Ruth da Silva Barbosa. 

In the closest race since Brazil returned to democracy after its 1964-1985 dictatorship, electoral officials declared the election for Lula, who had 50.9 percent of the vote to 49.1 percent for Bolsonaro with more than 99.9 percent of polling stations reporting.

Bolsonaro, the vitriolic hardline conservative dubbed the “Tropical Trump,” meanwhile becomes the first incumbent president not to win re-election in the post-dictatorship era.

With no word from Bolsonaro, some of his key allies appeared in public to accept the results, including the speaker of the lower house of Congress, Arthur Lira, who said it was time to “extend a hand to our adversaries, debate, build bridges.”

– ‘Restore peace’ –

Congratulations for Lula poured in from US President Joe Biden, France’s Emmanuel Macron, Canada’s Justin Trudeau as well as leaders from across Latin America.

Lula supporters around the country erupted into celebration Sunday evening.

“We’ve had four years of a genocidal, hateful government,” said Lula voter Maria Clara, a 26-year-old student, at a victory party in downtown Rio.

“Today democracy won, and the possibility of dreaming of a better country again.”

In Brasilia, the tearful crowd of Bolsonaro supporters — outfitted in green and yellow, the colors of Brazil’s flag which the ex-army captain has adopted as his own — fell to their knees to pray.

Bolsonaro surged to victory four years ago on a wave of outrage with politics as usual, but came under fire for his disastrous handling of the Covid-19 pandemic — which left more than 680,000 dead in Brazil — as well as a weak economy, polarizing style and attacks on democratic institutions.

Regardless of how the incumbent reacts, Lula will face huge challenges from the day he is inaugurated on January 1.

Bolsonaro’s far-right allies scored big victories in legislative and governors’ races in the first-round election on October 2, and will be the largest force in Congress.

On Sunday, Bolsonaro’s former infrastructure minister Tarcisio de Freitas clinched the governorship of Sao Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest state in the country.

– ‘Zero deforestation’  –

In his victory speech, Lula touched on gender and racial equality and the urgent need to deal with a hunger crisis affecting 33.1 million Brazilians.

“Today we tell the world that Brazil is back,” he said, adding that the country is “ready to reclaim its place in the fight against the climate crisis, especially the Amazon.”

He vowed to “fight for zero deforestation.”

Lula inherits a deeply divided country, with a hugely difficult global economic situation that looks nothing like the commodities “super-cycle” that allowed him to lead Latin America’s biggest economy through a watershed boom in the 2000s.

Lula’s win is “one of the biggest comebacks in modern political history,” tweeted Brian Winter, editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly.

But the president-elect will face a hostile Congress and have “a weak government,” Winter told AFP.

None of that mattered for the time being to elated Lula supporters.

“Brazil is starting to stand upright again after four years of darkness. We were going through so many problems, so much fear,” Larissa Meneses, a 34-year-old software developer, told AFP at a joyful victory party in Sao Paulo.

“Now with Lula’s victory, I really believe things will start getting better. This is a day to laugh a lot.”

The death toll from a storm that battered the Philippines has jumped to 98, the national disaster agency said Monday, with little hope of finding survivors in the worst-hit areas.

Just over half of the fatalities were from a series of flash floods and landslides unleashed by Tropical Storm Nalgae, which destroyed villages on the southern island of Mindanao on Friday.

Mindanao is rarely hit by the 20 or so typhoons that strike the Philippines each year, but storms that do reach the region tend to be deadlier than in Luzon and central parts of the country.

“We have shifted our operation from search and rescue to retrieval operation because the chances of survival after two days are almost nil,” said Naguib Sinarimbo, civil defence chief of the Bangsamoro region in Mindanao.

The number of fatalities is likely to rise, with the national disaster agency recording 63 people still missing and scores of others injured.

The Philippine Coast Guard posted pictures on Facebook showing its personnel in devastated Kusiong village, in Maguindanao del Norte province of Mindanao, wading through thigh-high mud and water, using long pieces of timber in the search for more bodies.

Kusiong was buried by a massive landslide, which created a huge mound of debris, just below several picturesque mountain peaks. 

Meanwhile, survivors continued the heartbreaking task of once again cleaning up their sodden homes.

Residents swept muddy water from their houses and shops as their furniture and other belongings dried in the now sunny streets of Noveleta municipality, south of the capital, Manila.

“In my entire life living here, it’s the first time we experienced this kind of flooding,” said Joselito Ilano, 55, whose house was flooded by waist-high water.

“I am used to flooding here but this is just the worst, I was caught by surprise.”

Perfidia Seguendia, 71, and her family lost all their belongings except the clothes they were wearing when they fled to their neighbour’s two-storey house.

“Everything was flooded — our fridge, washing machine, motorcycle, TV, everything,” Seguendia told AFP.

“All we managed to do was to cry because we can’t really do anything about it. We weren’t able to save anything, just our lives.”

– More rain on the way –

Nalgae inundated villages, destroyed crops and knocked out power in many regions as it swept across the country.

It struck on an extended weekend for All Saints’ Day, which is on Tuesday, when millions of Filipinos travel to visit the graves of loved ones.

Scientists have warned that deadly and destructive storms are becoming more powerful as the world gets warmer because of climate change.

The state weather forecaster warned that another tropical depression was heading towards the Philippines even as Nalgae moved across the South China Sea.

The new weather system could bring more heavy rain and misery to areas badly affected by Nalgae.

Landslides and flash floods originating from largely deforested mountainsides have been among the deadliest hazards posed by storms in the Philippines in recent years.

In April, deadly landslides and flooding triggered by another tropical storm smashed farming and fishing communities in the central province of Leyte. 

The death toll from twin car bombings in the Somali capital Mogadishu, claimed by Al-Shabaab Islamists, has risen to 100, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said on Sunday, drawing condemnation from the country’s international allies.

“So far, the number of people who died has reached 100 and 300 are wounded, and the number for both the death and wounded continues to increase,” he said after visiting the blast location.

Al-Shabaab, an Islamist group linked to Al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack in which two cars packed with explosives blew up minutes apart near the city’s busy Zobe intersection, followed by gunfire, saying in a statement they had targeted the country’s ministry of education.

The afternoon explosions tore through walls and shattered windows of nearby buildings, sending shrapnel flying and plumes of smoke and dust into the air.

Somalia’s allies swiftly denounced the bloody siege, with the United States, the United Nations and the African Union, as well as Turkey all issuing messages of support.

Women, children and the elderly were among the victims of the attack, police spokesman Sadik Dudishe said. 

“The ruthless terrorists killed mothers. Some of them died with their children trapped on their backs,” he said on Saturday, adding that the attackers had been stopped from killing more “innocent civilians and students”.

“I could not sleep last night because of the horrible scene,” police officer Adan Mohamed said on Sunday.

The attack took place at the same busy junction where a truck packed with explosives blew up on October 14, 2017, killing 512 people and injuring more than 290, the deadliest attack in the troubled country.

Mohamud described the incident as “historic”, saying “it is the same place, and the same innocent people involved”.

“This is not right. God willing, they will not be having an ability to do another Zobe incident,” he said, referring to Al-Shabaab.

– International condemnation –

Shop owner Mohamed Jama said he was with four men when the huge explosions hit. 

His shop, which is located next to a bank, collapsed and its windows shattered, the flying glass penetrating the flesh of the men.

“One of us had serious injuries… we bled there for a few minutes,” he told AFP in hospital.

The White House on Sunday decried the “tragic terrorist attack… and in particular its heinous targeting of the Somali Ministry of Education and first responders”.

UN chief Antonio Guterres “extends his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims, which include United Nations staff”, his spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement.

The UN mission in Somalia vowed to stand “resolutely with all Somalis against terrorism.”

“These attacks underline the urgency and critical importance of the ongoing military offensive to further degrade Al-Shabaab,” AU Transition Mission in Somalia, which replaced the previous AMISOM peacekeeping force, tweeted late Saturday.

Pope Francis also offered condolences to the victims of the bloody attack.

“Let us pray for the victims of the attack in Mogadishu in which more than 100 people lost their lives, among whom (were) many children,” he said, following his traditional Angelus prayer in Saint Peter’s Square.

The World Health Organisation said it was ready to help the government treat the injured and provide trauma care to the victims.

– ‘All-out war’ –

Al-Shabaab has been seeking to overthrow the fragile foreign-backed government in Mogadishu for about 15 years.

Its fighters were driven out of the capital in 2011 by an African Union force but the group still controls swathes of countryside and continues to wage deadly strikes on civilian and military targets.

In August, the group launched a 30-hour gun and bomb attack on the popular Hayat hotel in Mogadishu, killing 21 people and wounding 117.

Mohamud, who was elected in May, vowed after the August siege to wage “all-out war” on the Islamists.

In September, he urged citizens to stay away from areas controlled by jihadists, saying the armed forces and tribal militia were ratcheting up offensives against them.

Al-Shabaab remains a potent force despite multinational efforts to degrade its leadership and boost Somalia’s own security services, with the AU trying to help them take over primary responsibility for the country’s security by the end of 2024.

But the group last week claimed responsibility for an attack on a hotel in the port city of Kismayo that killed nine people and wounded 47 others.

Somalia has been mired in chaos since the fall of president Siad Barre’s military regime in 1991.

His ousting was followed by a civil war and the ascendancy of Al-Shabaab.

As well as the insurgency, Somalia — like its neighbours in the Horn of Africa — is in the grip of the worst drought in more than 40 years. Four failed rainy seasons have wiped out livestock and crops.

The conflict-wracked nation is considered one of the most vulnerable to climate change but is particularly ill-equipped to cope with the crisis as it battles the deadly Islamist insurgency.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg said on Sunday she will skip next month’s COP27 talks in Egypt, slamming the global summit as a forum for “greenwashing”.

“I’m not going to COP27 for many reasons, but the space for civil society this year is extremely limited,” she said during a question and answer at the launch of her latest book at London’s Southbank Centre.

The 19-year-old activist had previously expressed solidarity on Twitter with “prisoners of conscience” being held in Egypt ahead of the UN’s 27th conference on climate, opening in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on November 6.

“The COPs are mainly used as an opportunity for leaders and people in power to get attention, using many different kinds of greenwashing,” she said.

The COP conferences, she added, “are not really meant to change the whole system”, but instead encourage gradual progress.

“So as it is, the COPs are not really working, unless of course we use them as an opportunity to mobilise.”

Released on Thursday, Thunberg’s “The Climate Book” includes about 100 contributions from various experts, including economist Thomas Piketty, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and the writer Naomi Klein.

Thunberg’s royalties for the book will go to her eponymous foundation, which will distribute them to charitable organisations working on environmental issues.

The activist said she wanted the book to “be educational, which is a bit ironic since my thing is school strikes”, referring to her protests in front of the Swedish parliament starting in 2018.

Again and again on Sunday, Thunberg called for more people to get involved in climate activism, saying the time had come for “drastic changes” to the status quo.

“In order to change things, we need everyone — we need billions of activists,” she said.