ⓒYONHAP News

South Koreans observed a week-long national mourning period following the death of over 150 people in a deadly crowd crush in central Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood during Halloween celebrations on the last Saturday of October.

One-hundred-and-56 people were killed in Itaewon when crowds moving from both directions got stuck at a bottleneck in a narrow alley at around 10 p.m.  

Among the dead, 101 victims are women and 55 are men, with those in their 20s accounting for the largest portion at 104, followed by those in their 30s at 31 and 12 teenagers.Twenty-six foreigners were killed from 14 countries, including Iran, China, Russia, the U.S., Japan, Australia and France.

Investigations into the tragedy are ongoing, with the focus increasingly on the low number of police stationed in the area and the apparent lack of response to calls warning of overcrowding throughout the evening.

The National Police Agency's special investigation headquarters probing the deadly crowd crush had questioned 85 witnesses and victims as of Friday.

At a press conference, the headquarters chief said the list includes 67 witnesses and people injured in the tragedy, 14 people from nearby businesses, the head of the emergency situation room at the Yongsan Police Station and three police officers dispatched to the scene, none of whom have been booked.

President Yoon Suk Yeol apologized on Friday, saying he felt “sad and sorry” over the Itaewon crowd crush as the head of state responsible for the lives and safety of the people of Korea.

The president made the remarks in his address at a Buddhist memorial service for the victims of the accident at Jogye Temple in central Seoul.

This marks the first public apology by President Yoon over the tragedy that took the lives of 156 people.

In his memorial address, Yoon said that he is fully aware that the government and he have a duty to oversee the aftermath of the accident in a responsible manner and prevent a recurrence of similar accidents.

The president also vowed careful and full support for the victims' families and for those receiving treatment, while pledging the government's best effort to prevent a recurrence of the tragedy.

President’s Yoon’s apology came as the head of South Korea's National Police Agency acknowledged insufficiencies in the police response to emergency calls received prior to the deadly Itaewon crowd crush. As Commissioner General Yoon Hee-keun pledged a thorough investigation to determine whether adequate steps were taken by police following 112 emergency calls, Interior and Safety Minister Lee Sang-min apologized to the public for failing to prevent the tragedy.

Report: In the wake of the deadly crowd crush in central Seoul over the weekend, the head of the South Korean police has admitted that his agency failed to preemptively respond to rising risks in the area before the tragedy.

In a media briefing on Tuesday, Police Commissioner General Yoon Hee-geun noted that there were repeated 112 emergency calls by concerned citizens pointing to possible accidents. 

[Yoon Hee-keun - Commissioner General, National Police Agency (Korean-English)]

"We have found that there were multiple 112 emergency calls that point to the seriousness of the situation immediately before the accident. They were urgent calls in reference to the risk of possible accidents by the crowd surge. Despite that, we have concluded that the response at the scene was insufficient." 

As of Tuesday morning, 156 people have been killed in the crowd crush in the Itaewon nightlife district where massive crowds had poured into the streets to celebrate Halloween.

Victims were on an extremely crowded hill next to the neighborhood's Hamilton Hotel where they fell and knocked others down, creating a deadly pile-up Saturday night.

[Yoon Hee-keun - Commissioner General, National Police Agency (Korean-English)]

"We will thoroughly check whether the 112 emergency calls were properly addressed. We will also investigate whether police measures on the scene as well as commanding officers' responses were appropriate without exceptions."

The police have launched an independent investigation unit to get to the bottom of the deadly Halloween accident, and to determine whether adequate steps were taken by police as well as other government agencies in charge of public safety.

Later in the day,  Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min apologized to the Korean public for failing to prevent the accident during his briefing to the National Assembly's public safety committee. 

Lee on Sunday told reporters that the crowd crush wasn't something that could have been prevented simply by dispatching more police officers and firefighters to the site in advance and sparked public criticisms.