Pictures of two American victims of Saturday's crowd crush in Itaewon are taped at a memorial space in Itaewon, Monday. Keith Yi, a Korean American volunteered to put up the pictures upon the requests of the victims' friends via social media. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

Limited access to information and language barrier make search tough for foreigners

By Lee Hae-rin

An Iranian man stood in dismay in front of a memorial altar set up at Itaewon Station, just a few meters away from where a deadly crowd crush killed at least 154 people and injured hundreds of others on Saturday night, while many others still remain unaccounted for.

He was there to pay condolences to his deceased Iranian friends.

"I knew four of them (five Iranians were found dead from the incident)," he told The Korea Times, Monday, on condition of anonymity. "And then we had to wait many, many hours to know about our friends. Are they alive? Where are they?"

He said he could only learn the whereabouts of all four of them on Sunday around 3 p.m., after 10 hours of nail-biting, painful waiting.

"Some Korean friends helped us to find their names (on the list of casualties) and contacted hospitals. Very gradually, we found that four are dead," he said, still unable to believe his friends are gone.

Maram Ben Hamouda, 20-year-old French student at Hanyang University, also came to pay condolences to her deceased friends at the memorial site. She hadn't heard from them since losing them in the crowd on Saturday night and learned about their deaths Monday morning during Korean class.

Foreign mourners place white flowers to pay condolences at a memorial site set up at Itaewon Station in central Seoul, for the victims of Saturday's deadly crowd crush that killed 154 people, including 26 foreign nationals. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul