K-pop Idol Lee Ji Han Dies in the Itaewon Stampede
South Korean idol singer Lee Ji Han has reportedly passed away while being caught in the Itaewon stampede. The tragedy took place when tens of thousands of young partygoers gathered for a Halloween event but became trapped and crushed as the crowd swarmed into a narrow alley.
While local officials are still investigating, early numbers reported that at least 150 people were killed and many are still missing. Earlier today, Lee Hi Han’s friend shared the news that the 24-years-old idol was caught in the stampede and shared his obituary.
The idol’s friend wrote, “Lee Hi Han has left for a peaceful place. Please come and send him off to his final resting place.” The friend shared that Lee Ji Han’s funeral will take place on November 1.
Lee Ji Han was most remembered for being a contestant in idol program Produce 101 season 2. After his debut, Lee Ji Han was signed by Pan Entertainment and worked as a model and actor. Lee Ji Han last appeared in web drama Today Was Another Nam Hyun Day.
Source: World Journal
This article is written by Sammi for JayneStars.com.
Oh! RIP… So heartbreaking to see so many death and injuries…
Like, how does this even happen? To be crushed to death. By people. A stampede. I mean I’ve read about it, but to STEP over people? Like…even if you didn’t see very well, something fleshy that you stepped over, you would take a look right? And stop moving. But the crowd kept going. Not to fault anyone, because this happens here on home turf too, but man, it’s just so difficult to wrap my mind around this.
To be honest, I felt the same. I dont understand why is there a need to push and step on anyone.
But in UK, we had similar cases with football matches…and many deaths from stampede..
That’s not how a stampede works, the people pushing from the back don’t have any idea who (or even if) the people in front of them are stepping on. The people who died were trapped under people who couldn’t choose to move off of them.
Think of it like dominos, but instead it’s people. Knock over a line of dominoes and try to stand them back up using the one that fell last.
@TatsumakiJim @lilseemonster I thought stampede was defined as a rush of trampling underfoot either by animals or humans, usually in one direction.
I don’t believe this was a stampede. A stampede implies there’s room to run. This was a crowd surge situation. It’s the density that really caused the issue here. When you have 100,000 people pushing to get through a narrow alley, the people in the back don’t know what’s going on in the front. They’re just trying to get through. The people stuck in the middle can’t even control their motions. Many people who have been stuck in situations like this before compare it to feeling like being carried by a wave. Imagine the force of 50,000+ people pushing against you building momentum all the way from the back of the crowd. The whole thing is a very sad tragedy. Most of the victims were in their teens and early 20s, and 2/3s were female.
@Coralie I’m obviously no expert, so I could totally be transferring bad info. I’ve just been reading a lot of articles on this because of the magnitude of the phenomenon and how surprising it was. Based on those articles, this was more of a crowd surge/crowd crush situation where people were actually likely dying from asphyxia because there was so much pressure on them in the confined space. When they lack oxygen, they start to panic, and fall over, then other people around them fall over, and it creates this domino effect that @tatsumakijim was referring to. Whereas, a stampede refers to there actually being space to run and people are escaping from danger/trying to get out of a place.
I believe it was officially confirmed to be a Crowd crush which is what lilseemonster describes. People fall on top of each other because there’s no space while in a stampede people do have space to move(and step over people).
I have a friend who’s cousin was one of those who died. Such a tragic accident.
Indeed, experts call it crowd crush and not a stampede because it was about overcrowding a limited space with too many people with no room for any movement.
I was told that there’s video showing a few teens pushing that caused the tragic. Anyone to confirm?