Australian woman killed in South Korea crowd crush

The tragic last video of a young Australian film producer who was one of the 153 to die in Seoul’s horrific crowd crush shows her getting ready in an Audrey Hepburn costume. 

woman Grace Rached was just 12 days shy of her 24th birthday when she headed out with three friends to Seoul’s central Itaewon nightlife district on Saturday night. 

The film production assistant was travelling around the world — having just been in Bali two days before — where she shared footage of herself swimming, cycling, dancing and drinking flaming shots with her friends on the Indonesian resort island.

She was in Seoul with her friend Nathan Taverniti, who said he was now acting as guardian for the body of his dead friend, while two other friends remain in hospital — with one in intensive care.

Video Mr Taverniti shared to TIkTok showed his group on Saturday night excitedly getting ready for Halloween in an apartment, with each of them dressed in an ‘all-black’ costume. 

Himself as an anime character, Ms Rached as Audrey Hepburn from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, another as a cat and the fourth member as a witch.

The video showed them arriving on the street from a subway station with Mr Taverniti remarking ‘there are so many people here’ before it cut to the group dancing in a club. 

‘This was how our night was supposed to be — fun, happy and free,’ he captioned the clip.

‘It ended with two of my friends in hospital and one passed away.I am sad, I am angered, I am at a loss,’ he wrote.   

Another Australian woman caught up in the crowd crush told how she escaped the danger. 

Olivia Jacovic stumbled upon the event and decided to join the crowd but quickly became concerned as thousands crammed into the area’s small streets and alleyways. 

‘I was using my arms and just squishing my way out…I didn’t care that my clothes were getting ripped. I just got out of there,’ Ms Jacovic told Channel Nine.

First responders described the scene they arrived to as rows of people ‘several heads high’ jammed so tightly together they couldn’t move.

Some were fighting to breathe, while others fell to the ground and were being trampled underneath the crowd. 

Questions are now being raised as to why South Korean police, who had a station not far from where the tragedy unfolded, had not stepped in earlier to disperse the massive gathering.

Speaking from the scene early on Monday morning, CNN correspondent Will Ripley told Today the streets, cordoned off by police guard, were eerily quiet compared to the panic that had unfolded mere hours ago.

‘Those bags they have collected there have pieces of Halloween costumes including somebody shoe right there, it really hits home just how sad this is,’ he said.

‘We were here yesterday and we could see one woman’s body, her princess dress was hanging out from underneath the sheet, it’s heartbreaking.’ 

‘It was this glittery beautiful costume and anyone that knew her would have recognised it instantly.’

Along with South Koreans, partygoers from Iran, China, Russia, the US, Australia, Japan, France, Norway, Austria, Vietnam, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Sri Lanka have been confirmed among the dead. 

‘The big question is why weren’t the police out earlier, those crowds were getting bigger and bigger.People couldn’t move in this area which is significantly bigger than they alleyway where most of the people died’. 

‘Why weren’t the police — who have a police station a couple of minutes walk down that way — not out here dispersing the crowd?’

‘At the point where they did show up the crowd was so big and 강남오피 loud there are reports people didn’t think they were real officers but were in costume as part of the event.’

Witnesses said people fell on each other ‘like dominoes,’ and some victims were bleeding from their noses and mouths while being given CPR.

Authorities have promised a thorough investigation as South Korea processes one of its worst disasters ever. 

As of Sunday evening, officials said 153 people were killed and 133 were injured.Nearly two-thirds of those killed — 97 — were women. More than 80 per cent of the dead were in their 20s and 30s, and at least four were teenagers.

While Halloween isn´t a traditional holiday in South Korea — where children rarely go trick-or-treating — it´s still a major attraction for young adults, and costume parties at bars and clubs have become hugely popular in recent years.

Seoul’s marquee Halloween destination is Itaewon, near where the former headquarters of U.S.military forces in South Korea operated for decades before moving out of the capital in 2018. The expat-friendly district is known for its trendy bars, clubs and restaurants.

Witnesses said the streets were so densely clogged with people and slow-moving vehicles that it was practically impossible for emergency workers and ambulances to swiftly reach the alley near Hamilton Hotel, a major party spot in Seoul.