Dozens were reported to have gone into cardiac arrest (Pictures: AFP/Getty)
At least 59 people have been killed and 150 injured after a stampede of Halloween partiers in the South Korean capital of Seoul, local officials say.
Warning: Graphic content
As many as 81 people were reported to be having ‘breathing problems’ after thousands of party-goers pushed through a street in the Itaewon leisure district Saturday night.
About 50 people are thought to have gone into cardiac arrest, news agency Yonhap reported.
President Yoon Suk Yeol called for those who were injured to be treated and urged officials to review the safety protocols for the Halloween festivity sites.
He ordered the Ministry of Health and Welfare to deploy disaster medical teams and secure hospital beds for those injured.
Countless emergency service workers gave injured people CPR (Picture: Twitter)
The narrow street heaved with people before the crowd surge (Picture: Twitter)
Two people have been confirmed dead in a death toll expected to rise (Picture: Getty Images)
Officials fear the death toll will continue to rise (Picture: AFP)
Alarming footage showed citizens, police officers and emergency medical workers performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on dozens of people lying in the street.
Other images from the scene showed body bags lining the streets and firefighters carrying bodies covered with white sheets on stretchers to ambulances.
One clip appeared to show responders desperately trying to save people from being crushed as people were left piling on top of one another.
Firefighters were called to the party hotspot Hamilton Hotel where various Halloween celebrations were being held, officials said.
National Fire Agency official Choi Cheon-sik said 100 people were reportedly injured during the crowd surge.
Choi said around 400 rescue workers from around the nation had been deployed, including nearly all available city personnel.
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Nearly all of the nation’s available personnel were deployed (Picture: Getty Images)
The crowd surge took place by a popular party hot spot ahead of Halloween (Picture: Getty Images)
Around 100 people were injured during the incident, a fire service official said (Picture: EPA)
Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon, who was visiting the Netherlands, cancelled the rest of his trip and is returning home.
An emergency broadcast has been pinged to every mobile phone in the Yongsan District during people go home due to ‘an emergency accident near Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon’.
Ahead of one of Seoul’s most popular nights of the year, the narrow street was jam-packed with as many as 100,000 people eager to celebrate Halloween.
Some social media users have claimed the surge erupted as a large number of people rushed to a bar to see an unidentified celebrity.
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(Warning: Graphic content) More than 150 more people were injured during a stampede in Seoul.