From crowd to crush

On-site photo at the Itaewon tragedy. (Photo: AFP)

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a concert for one of my favorite artists. I stood shoulder-to-shoulder with fellow fans for hours, shouting, singing, and celebrating the music that we all loved—gathered under one purpose. 

It was cramped, and honestly a little hard to breathe, but I was okay with it. If anything, I thought the experience was transformative. There’s something about being in a room with thousands of people who are feeling the same things you’re feeling that’s unlike anything else you could ever experience.

At the time, I didn’t think the situation was unsafe. Uncomfortable, sure, but I didn’t think there was any immediate danger. I’d been in other crowds, too—at other concerts, protests, and even during my daily commute. I’ve been in so many crowds that it feels almost normal to me at this point.

So when I read about the tragedy in Itaewon, I couldn’t fathom how so many fatalities could come from something so simple. Just some party-goers trying to pass through an alley, right? How could that possibly be deadly?

Anatomy of a crowd crush

First of all, it was more than just a few people. On October 29th, thousands of young people had gathered in Seoul’s nightlife district, Itaewon, to celebrate Halloween for the first time since pandemic restrictions were loosened. Some accounts report that there were more than 100,000 people in the area that night. 

Police had been called as early as 6:34pm, several hours before the deadly crush occurred to be on the lookout for crime in the area, but no significant reinforcements arrived until hours later as the crush grew deadly. Seoul authorities say that there were 137 officers on the ground at Itaewon that night—but they were no match for the hundred thousand party-goers pushing and pulling from all directions. 

Itaewon is an area made up of narrow roads and alleys, and with a hundred thousand people coming in from three different directions, panic and hysteria were quick to spread, turning the crowd into a deadly crowd crush. Tragically, at least 153 people were killed, and 82 were injured in the crush, most victims in their 20s and 30s.

Itaewon isn’t an isolated incident. In September 2015, the annual Hajj, or the pilgrimage to Mecca, led to an estimated 2,300 deaths, the deadliest in history. Some attributed the crush to the closure of a road and lack of crowd management. 

In October 2022, thousands of sports fans gathered in a football stadium in Indonesia. Tensions ran high as the game results were announced, and the losing team’s fans stormed the pitch and started a riot. Authorities fired teargas in an attempt to disrupt the crowd, but it only contributed to the panic, as people suffocated and were crushed as thousands of fans rushed to narrow and closed exits. Reports show that there were at least 125 deaths, including that of 40 children.

Almost 500,000 pilgrims were gathered in a village temple in India, in October 2013. At some point, a rumor began to spread amongst the crowd about a bridge collapsing—panic spread like wildfire, causing a stampede that killed 115 people and left 110 injured.

And in the Philippines, 20,000 people attempted to break into the Philsports Arena in Pasig City in February 2006. In an attempt to grab seats at what was meant to be the first anniversary of the noontime show Wowowee, tension amongst the crowd members escalated, eventually turning into a stampede that killed at least 73 people and injured almost 400 more. Some officials report that someone had yelled “Bomb!” which caused people to panic and rush to the exit.

A recipe for disaster

Whether people are aware of it or not, they tend to act differently in crowds. Gustave LeBon, a French social psychologist, explains this through the Contagion Theory: The mob overtakes the individual’s sense of self, personality, and responsibility. The crowd invokes a hypnotic state in the individual, and when combined with the anonymity that it provides, it leads people to do and feel things that they normally wouldn’t outside of the crowd. 

This is why large groups of people become more likely to engage in emotionally charged behavior—whether it’s vibing to a song together, expressing rage when their favorite sports team loses, or spreading fear and panic when someone yells “Bomb!”.

As it turns out, the cathartic release I felt from being in a crowd of people who love the music that I love is the same phenomena that ignites stampedes and turns crowds deadly. When that feeling meets a single narrow exit and poor crowd control by authorities, a crowd can turn into a crowd crush, and cause hundreds of deaths and injuries.

Now I’m a little worried about the next time I attend a concert or get stuck in a packed train during my commute, so I’ll be reading up on helpful tips on how to escape a crowd crush in the meantime—and I suggest you do the same. You know, just in case.