A special police unit investigating the deadly Itaewon crowd surge on Friday slapped an overseas travel ban on Yongsan District Office chief Park Hee-young, who is under investigation for allegedly failing in her duties in preventing and responding to the tragic accident. 

The measure came four days after the police booked her on charges of homicide by occupational negligence. 

The investigators are probing whether the district office, which oversees the Itaewon area, took proper safety measures concerning the tourist hotspot ahead of the October 29 tragedy that took the lives of 156 people, mostly young people in their twenties.

They are also looking into why her deputy, not she herself, presided over safety discussions prior to the accident as well as how properly she dealt with the disaster. 

Also under scrutiny is a district ordinance passed in April that allows dancing in restaurants in the district, and how it may have affected the fatal crowd crush. 

Park is the second person banned from overseas travel in the ongoing investigation following a similar ban on the head of Hamilton Hotel located right next to the alley where the accident occurred. The hotel is suspected of allegedly putting up illegal structures that possibly exacerbated the accident.