Police have opened investigations into six high-level officials involved in the deficient response to the Itaewon crowd crush on suspicions of gross negligence that led to death.  

The National Police Agency's special investigation headquarters zeroing in on six individuals for "death by occupational or gross negligence", including Yongsan District's former police chief, the fire chief and district head, after assessing that the tragedy was caused by a lack of proper safety management and swift reporting to superiors.

Former Yongsan police chief Lee Im-jae and Ryu Mi-jin, in charge of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's emergency call monitoring at the time, also face dereliction of duty charges for deficiencies found in their response.

Two other officials from the Yongsan police station are additionally charged with abuse of power and destruction of evidence in connection with a deleted report analyzing the risk of safety accidents.

The police are also looking into whether the Yongsan District Office poorly handled requests for support by related organizations, and whether the fire department did enough in response to emergency calls.

Investigators have finished analyzing 600 items and are going through 65-hundred surveillance footage recordings from the accident site.