SEOUL: The Seoul city government has announced plans to deploy patrol forces and implement traffic controls in 15 of the city’s most crowded districts during the upcoming Halloween week, aiming to prevent overcrowding and ensure public safety.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the city has designated a “concentrated Halloween safety management period” from Friday to November 3 to enhance patrols and monitoring in these areas. The designated locations include the special tourist zones in Itaewon and Hongdae, a nightlife area near Konkuk University, Gangnam Station, and a shopping district in Myeongdong. During this period, public workers will be dispatched to these sites for crowd patrol, installation of safety fences, and traffic control.
The city plans to collaborate with the interior ministry, district offices, police, and firefighters to operate situation rooms that will monitor the sites in real time using surveillance cameras. This system aims to provide a swift response in case of an emergency. As part
of these efforts, crowd-monitoring CCTVs will be used to automatically count the number of people per unit area and issue safety alerts to authorities and citizens if safety risks are identified.
In Itaewon, approximately 4,200 safety management personnel will be stationed to manage crowd dispersion and control the flow of people exiting Itaewon Station if necessary. The measures come in the wake of a tragic incident on October 29, 2022, when 159 people were killed in a crowd crush in Seoul’s Itaewon nightlife district during the Halloween weekend.
“We will not let our guard down during this safety management period and will cooperate closely with relevant institutions to thoroughly manage public safety,” stated the city’s deputy mayor.