The family members of two Japanese victims in a Halloween crush in Seoul that killed more than 150 people saw and identified the bodies of their loved ones Monday, as many people continued to make sense of the tragedy that raised questions over police security.
Ayumu Tomikawa, whose 26-year-old daughter Mei was one of the two Japanese killed, flew from Hokkaido, northern Japan, to South Korea Monday night with two other family members.
An Kozuchi, an 18-year-old language student from Saitama Prefecture who was the other Japanese woman who died, was also seen by her family on Monday, a relative said.
The crush, which happened Saturday night, was the deadliest accident in South Korea in almost a decade and took place in a sloped, narrow alley during Halloween festivities in the Itaewon district, a popular nightlife area in Seoul.
The incident left at least 155 people dead and around 150 injured, according to South Korean authorities.
In Saitama, Kozuchi's grandfather said, "It is so sudden that I have no words. I am just so sad." He also said that it "feels as if my heart is going to be ripped apart."
About 100,000 people were anticipated to gather but only 137 police officers were deployed on the day of the incident. The South Korean police said that security measures had been focused on cracking down on crime, admitting that there was no manual regarding crowd control in the absence of a central organizer.
The police are analyzing footage of crush taken by surveillance cameras, as well as videos uploaded onto social media platforms in the hope of finding clues as to the cause of the tragedy. On Monday, the South Korean government said six of the dead were junior high and high school students.
According to Mei's father, she had been studying Korean in Seoul since June and had hoped to find a job related to the two neighboring countries.
He last communicated with his daughter around 7 p.m. Saturday when she said she was going out with a French friend.
She could not be reached by phone on Sunday morning, and after several calls, a local police officer answered her phone and said it was found at the site of the crush.
Her father then contacted Japan's Foreign Ministry and sent a photo of his daughter. He was told around 5 p.m. Sunday by the ministry that a fingerprint of a victim matched that of his daughter.
"I had believed until the last minute that she was okay," the father said.
According to Mei's Japanese friend in Seoul, Mei traveled to South Korea to study Korean after graduating from a technical school and working for around five years in Japan.
"She said she wanted to stay in South Korea even after finishing studying Korean," the friend said.
Of the victims, 26 were foreigners from 14 countries, including Iran, China, Russia and the United States, according to the South Korean government.
In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said the Japanese government expresses heartfelt sympathies to the victims.
"The government will support as much as possible" the families of the two Japanese victims, the top government spokesman told a press conference.
The crush is the deadliest accident in South Korea since the 2014 Sewol ferry sinking disaster that killed more than 300 people, most of them high school students, according to local media.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife visited Monday an altar set up in Seoul as a mourning site for the victims' families and associates. A weeklong period of national mourning has been declared through Saturday.
South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck Soo the same day called on the government to "thoroughly look into the cause of the accident and do its best to revise necessary policies so that such a tragedy will not recur," according to Yonhap News Agency.
Of the 154 victims, 26 were foreigners from 14 countries, including Iran, China, Russia and the United States, according to the South Korean government.
In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said the Japanese government expresses heartfelt sympathies to the victims of the crush.
"The government will support as much as possible" the families of the two Japanese victims, the top government spokesman told a press conference.
The crush is the deadliest accident in South Korea since the 2014 Sewol ferry sinking disaster that killed more than 300 people, most of them high school students, according to local media.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife visited Monday an altar set up in Seoul as a mourning site for the victims' families and associates. A weeklong period of national mourning has been declared through Saturday.
South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck Soo the same day called on the government to "thoroughly look into the cause of the accident and do its best to revise necessary policies so that such a tragedy will not recur," according to Yonhap news agency.
Related coverage:
154 killed, 133 injured in Halloween crowd crush in Seoul
