16 killed after grate collapses at South Korean pop concert
Print Edition
SIXTEEN people watching an outdoor pop concert in South Korea fell 20 meters to their deaths yesterday when a ventilation grate they were standing on collapsed, officials said.
Photos of the scene in Seongnam, just south of Seoul, showed a deep concrete shaft under the broken grate.
A Seongnam official announced the deaths during a televised briefing and said that 11 others were seriously injured.
Fire officials earlier said that the victims were standing on the grate watching an outdoor performance by girl band 4Minute, who are popular across Asia.
About 700 people had gathered to watch the concert, which was part of a local festival, the Yonhap news agency reported.
The YTN television network, citing unidentified witnesses, said many of the spectators were female students.
A video recorded by someone at the concert that later ran on YTN showed the band continuing to dance for a while in front of a crowd that appeared to be unaware of the accident.
Meanwhile, dozens of people were shown standing next to the ventilation grate, gazing into the gaping hole where people had been standing. YTN said the grate was about 3 to 4 meters wide.
The cause of the accident wasn’t immediately known.
The collapse came as South Korea still struggles with the aftermath of a ferry disaster in April that left more than 300 people dead or missing.
For a time, the sinking jolted South Korea into thinking about safety issues that had been almost universally overlooked as the country rose from poverty and war to an Asian power.
The tragedy exposed regulatory failures that seem to have allowed the ferry Sewol to set off with far more cargo than was safe. Family members say miscommunications and delays in rescue efforts doomed their loved ones.
Analysts say many safety problems in the country stem from little regulation, light punishments, wide ignorance about safety and a tendency to value economic advancement over all else.
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