​Police Chief Is Indicted Over South Korea’s Deadly Crowd Crush

Prosecutors in South Korea have indicted the head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency​, charging him with contributing through negligence to the Halloween crowd crush in Seoul in 2022​ that killed nearly 160 people, officials said.

The police chief charged on Friday, Kim Kwang-ho, is one of the most senior government officials to face criminal charges stemming from the episode, one of the worst peacetime disasters in South Korea’s history. The head of Yongsan District, the area of Seoul where the deadly event happened, was already facing similar charges.

On Oct. 29, 2022, thousands of young people packed into Itaewon, a popular nightlife neighborhood in central Seoul, to enjoy the first restriction-free Halloween weekend since the pandemic. Hundreds squeezed into a narrow​ and sloping alleyway from both ends, creating a suffocating squeeze in the middle.