A police squad first arrived at the scene of the Halloween crowd crush in Seoul nearly 85 minutes after the incident erupted, police data showed Sunday.
A total of five police squads affiliated with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA) were mobilized on the day of the crowd crush in Itaewon district that killed at least 156 people, mostly those in their 20s, according to the data submitted by the SMPA to Rep. Lee Tae-won of the main opposition Democratic Party.
The No. 11 police squad first arrived at the scene at 11:40 p.m. on Oct. 29 under the instruction of Lee Im-Jae, a former chief of the Yongsan Police Station that includes the Itaewon neighborhood. The first call to the police’s 112 emergency hotline was made around 10:15 p.m.
Four other squads arrived at the scene one by one, starting from 11:50 p.m. on Oct. 29 to 1:14 a.m. on Oct. 30, according to the SMPA data.
Lee — temporarily suspended from his post — was also found to have arrived at the Itaewon police substation at 11:05 p.m., some 50 minutes after the incident happened.
Also, a total of eight units of conscripted policemen were ordered to be dispatched to the scene at 12:11 a.m. on Oct. 30, the data showed. The role of conscripted policemen is to support police officers in various tasks such as patrol.
The first unit arrived at the scene at 12:50 a.m. on Oct. 30, followed by seven others up until 1:12 a.m., it said.
Kim Kwang-ho, chief of the SMPA, was also belatedly briefed by the Yongsan police chief at 11:36 p.m. on Oct. 29, leaving the top police command in the dark for more than an hour, the data showed.
Source: Philippines News Agency
