South Korea on Sunday is set to commemorate the first anniversary of the deadly Halloween crush incident which killed 159 people and injured another 195, mostly in their twenties and thirties.

Relatives of the victims and civic group are planning to hold a memorial event at Seoul Plaza in front of city hall on Sunday to mourn the victims, seek closure and urge authorities to disclose more information on what contributed to the tragedy.

On the night of Oct. 29, 2022, hundreds of Halloween partygoers became trapped in a crowd crush in the capital Seoul's Itaewon district, known to revelers as a place of fun, freedom and openness. The area's narrow, steep streets and constrained access points proved a lethal mix and left more than 150 people dead.

The evening had begun with optimism. South Korea was marking Halloween almost free of the COVID-19 restrictions that had dampened recent years' festivities, and Itaewon was ready to party. The crowd was mostly young; many wore colorful costumes as they converged on the area with friends.

Authorities say more than twice as many people left Itaewon metro station on October 29 than the year before, with as many as 100,000 estimated to be in the area. Three narrow streets and alleyways leading to the station were particularly crammed.

What none of the people realized as they inched toward the Hamilton Hotel was that in the swarm ahead, revelers increasingly fearful of the crowd’s density had been calling police for hours, with little response. According to police, 11 emergency calls were made from Itaewon before the crush turned deadly.

National Police Commissioner, Yoon Hee-keun, acknowledged that crowd control was inadequate, and the president said it was critical to improve emergency responses. Police on November 2 released transcripts of emergency calls that showed increasing distress among revelers as the crowd swelled, providing nearly four hours of warnings that went mostly unheeded.

The police have faced stringent public criticism and scrutiny over its responses during the tragedy, having dispatched just 137 officers to the area despite estimating in advance as many as 100,000 people would gather.

(Production: Minwoo Park)