Crowd crush: Aussie fighting for life had just moved to South Korea

A young Australian woman who is fighting for life after being crushed in the Seoul stampede had quit her job and moved to just months before the tragedy. 

Justina Cho, from , went out with her sister and two friends to enjoy celebrations in central Itaewon district on Saturday night when they were caught in the crowd crush as thousands of people raced to see a local celebrity. 

Ms Cho’s friend Grace Rached, 23, was one of 153 people killed in the carnage.Ms Cho was rushed to hospital with critical injuries, where she remains in ICU. 

In a series of posts, her older sibling Julia, 23, and friend Nathan Taverniti have been detailing how the horror unfolded as they blasted the South Korean government’s lack of preparedness for the event and response to its aftermath.  

Daily Mail Australia can reveal Ms Cho, who is of South Korean heritage but grew up in Australia, had just entered a new chapter in her life after relocating overseas.

In a video titled ‘Seoul diaries’, Ms Cho revealed she had left Sydney around late July and was enjoying the newfound freedom of not working. 

‘So about a month ago I quit my job and move to Seoul, South Korea,’ she says in the TikTok, posted in August. 

‘So I am currently unemployed with no plans, but just vibing.’ 

Ms Cho said she wanted to share some of her adventures with fans, adding that she was currently getting a tattoo.

The clip continues to show a tattoo artist inking a drawing featuring three eyes on her wrist, which she said represented the multiple layers to her personality, such as her love of ‘food, fashion, plants and my cat’. 

In the months since the move, Ms Cho has been posting photos on Instagram of her travels around South Korea, including seeing Seoul fashion week and visiting temples,. 

In her last post, four days ago, she shared a photo of her on a day trip to Namyangju province, about 22k m northeast of the capital, which is known for its stunning  waterfalls and historical sites. 

‘I love you Namyangju,’ she wrote, alongside pictures of her exploring and scenery.

Just two days later, she was caught in the deadly stamped  

As Ms Cho fights for life, her sister and Mr Taverniti denounced the South Korean government for ‘negligence’ and ‘poor management’ which they say led to the disaster. 

In a TikTok video on Monday, Mr Taverniti said he had read numerous articles in South Korea media in the days prior to the tragedy saying their would be an increased presence to manage the 100,000 strong crowd. 

‘A group of women fell down in front of me, myself and others tried to help pull them up.This is all it took to create the entire state of chaos because there was no officials from the government around,’ he said.

‘The government 100% knew the event was taking place and did not have the proper precautions in place in case something happened.’

Mr Taverniti said there were no emergency services dispatched to be on standby incase of an accident, and once paramedics were called as things turned deadly it took two hours for personnel to arrive. 

‘This is not an issue of people — this is an issue of poor government handling and negligence,’ he said.

In a scathing post on TikTok, Julia echoed his sentiments, slamming authorities for their preparation leading up to the event and handling of the emergency. 

‘Local authorities were not on standby and left innocent people helpless, despite knowing there was an excessive amount of people in the streets with nowhere to go,’ the Sydney-based tattoo artist said. 

‘People were suffocating, toppling over one another and crushed.’

Ms Cho said the stampede occurred early in the night and ‘bodies were being retrieved well into the AM’. 

She said the government had insufficient systems in place to help worried families trying to get status updates about the safety of their loved ones. 

As her younger sister’s condition hangs in the balance, Ms Cho called on authorities to accept accountability for the disaster. 

‘The government hotline for missing people is down right now and victims’ families do not even know where the body of their loved ones are at the moment,’ she continued.

‘I may never get my sister back. 

‘The leaders and authorities hold sole responsibility and have failed their people.I’m posting this here to raise awareness and to express my grief for those whose livelihoods were stolen as a result of neglect and poor management.’ 

Social media users have flocked to Julia’s TikTok to offer their condolences for Ms Rached’s loss and well wishes for the recovery of her sister.

‘I hope you get justice for the lack of effort on the government side,’ one person wrote.

‘Condolences for your loss.Praying for the recovery of your sister and friend.’

Another said: ‘My heart hurts for your sister and friends and all those people who’ve lost someone tonight.’

‘This tragedy could’ve been avoided with better safety measures.’ 

Meanwhile, Ms Rached has been remembered by her heartbroken family  as someone who ‘always made others feel important’ and whose ‘kindness left an impression on everyone she ever met’. 

‘We are missing our gorgeous angel Grace who lit up a room with her infectious smile,’ the family said in a statement on Monday.

‘Grace always cared about others and she was loved by all.  Grace showed us all what it meant to be an incredible human being.

‘We will all deeply miss our beautiful Grace, our life of the party.’

Ms Rached was 12 days shy of turning 24 and 포항 오피 dressed as Aubrey Hepburn as she headed into Itaewon district on Saturday night. 

Just two days before the disaster, she uploaded a Tik Tok video of herself on a trip to Bali which showed her swimming, cycling, dancing and drinking flaming shots with her friends on the Indonesian resort island.

She captioned the video: ‘Thanks Bali, you were a blast.’

In another post from August this year, Ms Rached posted an ominous video called ‘what I’ve learned in my almost 24 years of life’. 

She wrote in the clip: ‘When you go, nothing goes with you.So you may as well enjoy your time here.’

Ms Rached was the former school captain at Canterbury Girls’ High School before she graduated in 2016.

The school has offered its sincere condolences and deepest sympathies go her family and will be providing counseling and support for all affected students and staff.

Friends and loved ones flooded her Tik Tok profile over the weekend with heartfelt messages and tributes.

‘I hope you rest in peace Grace, what an awful situation to be in, sending prayers for family and friends,’ one person wrote.

Another said: ‘Rest in peace my angel.’

‘Rest in peace.You deserved so much better,’ added another.

Ms Rached was an avid traveller who flew all over the world with Electric Lime Films, the indie film company she worked for.

In an online interview on the company’s website, the young woman described her jet-setting lifestyle as ‘electrifying’.

‘Singapore was a dream!’ she said.

‘I loved being able to meet people from all walks of life, and learn how the industry operates.Travelling is always an eye opening experience.’

In a gut-wrenching Tik Tok video on Sunday, Mr Taverniti said he tried to grab Ms Rached out of the suffocating chaos but wasn’t able to.

‘I was there when she said she couldn’t breathe and I grabbed one of my friend’s hands,’ he said in a TikTok post.

‘There was no stampede, it was a slow and agonising crush.’

He earlier told a South Korean newspaper that: ‘All I could see was a wall of people … it was impossible (to save her).’ 

He later saw her taken away on a stretcher but couldn’t find her. 

Mr Taverniti said he was making the video after just arriving at his accommodation having located his friend’s body, which he only did with the help of some ‘kind-hearted reporters’ from the American ABC network.

Seoul’s emergency services had been overwhelmed by the fatal crush amongst a 100,000-strong crowd there to attend the city’s 2022 Halloween Festival.

It was first time the festival had been held in full since Covid, with the crush occurring shortly after 10pm local time (8pm EADT). 

So far, 153 deaths and at least 82 others were left injured in the incident, with authorities bracing for more possible fatalities. 

According to local emergency responders, many of the victims were women in their 20s, and most were teenagers or in their early twenties. 

Officials confirmed that dozens of people went into cardiac arrest and the number of deaths is still expected to rise.An unspecified number remain in a critical condition in hospital.

Photos from the scene showed at least 25 bodies lying on the ground in the streets of Seoul, concealed by yellow blankets. A separate line of bodies covered in blue blankets was also photographed.

As the full scale of the tragedy was still being realised, South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol said on Sunday morning that the deadly stampede ‘should not have happened’. 

‘In the centre of Seoul, a tragedy and disaster occurred that should not have happened,’ Yoon said in a national address, vowing to ‘thoroughly investigate’ the incident and ensure it could never happen again.

Dozens of people were given CPR on Itaewon’s streets while many others have been taken to nearby hospitals. 

A makeshift morgue was set up in an adjacent building due to the sheer number of fatalities.

Photographs and videos on social media show horrific scenes of panic in the aftermath of the crush, and people’s desperate efforts to escape from the building tragedy. 

One particularly distressing video showed dozens of people struggling to breathe and stay on their feet in the crowd as rescue workers attempted to extricate those most in need of medical assistance from the throng. 

Hundreds of police officers had been deployed to the area in advance of Saturday night in anticipation of the large crowds, but they were reportedly struggling to keep control in the minutes before the tragedy unfolded.