Im Hyun-kyu (in uniform), new head of the Yongsan Police Agency in charge of Itaewon district, pays silent tribute at a temporary memorial for the victims of the Itaewon tragedy in front of Itaewon Subway Station in Seoul on Nov. 3, 2022. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — The government has come up with various measures to prevent crowd surges, including crowd control in high-density subways, officials said Thursday, in the wake of the deadly Itaewon tragedy.
The measures were discussed at a meeting, presided over by Interior Minister Lee Sang-min, with the participation of Yoon Hee-keun, chief of the National Police Agency, and other ranking officials.
The plans include preventing crowd surges in overcrowded subway stations and trains in cities with populations of more than 500,000 people, they said.
The government said an alarm will be issued when there is concern that the density of people within subways stations dangerous.
Separately, the government will grant stronger authority to police officers and fire fighters so that they can respond more actively at the scene of disasters.
The measure comes amid amounting public criticism over police bungling their initial response at the scene of Halloween crowd crush on Saturday that killed at least 156 people.
The government also held a meeting later in the day to enact a guideline on a crowd accident prevention safety control system for spontaneous group events that do not have organizers. Saturday’s event did not have an organizer.
The enactment is aimed at applying a revision of the disaster and safety law — tabled in parliament a day earlier — in the field more effectively, officials said.
(Yonhap)
