Seoul, Nov. 1 (BNA): Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon apologized Tuesday for the Halloween rally that killed at least 156 people.
“As the mayor of Seoul who is responsible for the lives and safety of the citizens, I feel infinitely responsible for the incident and express my deepest apologies,” Oh said in a tearful voice during a press conference in his office.
“The Seoul city government will do its best to mobilize all its administrative powers so that all funeral procedures are completed and the families of the victims and injured and all citizens who are grieving over this incident can return to their daily lives.”
Then the mayor pledged to put in place measures to prevent such a tragic accident from happening again. “From now on, the city government will do everything possible to eliminate the risk of safety accidents at places or events where a lot of people congregate,” he said.
The apology came amid increasing media scrutiny that administrative authorities and police had failed to enforce crowd control in Itaewon, the site of the tragedy, although large numbers of people were expected to flock to the area last Saturday.
Some critics say the Seoul city government, Itaewon’s Yongsan Ward office, and police should have taken adequate accident prevention measures in anticipation of the Halloween crowd of more than 100,000 people.
You were visiting Europe at the time of the Itaewon disaster. He returned on Sunday after cutting short his foreign trip.
Earlier today, Interior and Safety Minister Lee Sang-min and National Police Chief Yoon Hee-kyun offered similar apologies over the disaster.
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