An Australian woman has opened up about her brush with death during a mass stampede at a Halloween event in South Korea that killed 158 people.
Miri Doe revealed the trauma of broken ribs and ‘severe kidney and liver damage’ she suffered during the tragedy in the nightclub district of Itaewon in Seoul on October 31 in a TikTok post.
The stampede saw hundreds of young people on a night out struggle to escape the crush of the crowd trapped in the neighbourhood’s small streets.
‘I don’t know why I survived, when my friends couldn’t make it,’ she said, revealing two of her friends died in the tragedy.
‘I am genuinely upset and angry that I couldn’t help them and that I couldn’t protect them either.’
TikTokker Miri Doe (pictured, with a hospital vest to stabilise her injuries) also talked about her near death experience and how the ‘out-of-control’ crowds pushed her to the ground during the deadly Halloween stampede in Seoul, South Korea on October 31
She also described her near-death experience and how the ‘out-of-control’ crowds pushed her to the ground.
‘When I fell I saw my friend for the last time, I tripped and I got swept away by the sea of people and there was immense pain in my chest and in my head,’ she said.
‘At that moment I thought I was going to die because I couldn’t breathe … and I was thinking, “OK I’m going to die, I’m really going to die, f*** I guess this is it.’
But Ms Doe said she miraculously woke up ‘gasping for air’ during the deadly incident. She has been laid up in hospital since with injuries to her neck, arms and internal organs.
‘My friends and I were at Itaewon because we just wanted to have a good time but no one imagined anything like this would happen,’ she said.
The TikTokker wore a hospital vest necessary to stabilise her injuries as she detailed her trauma, including a confronting image of herself in hospital at ‘her most critical stage’.
‘I suffered severe kidney and liver damage, I broke my ribs and my neck,’ she said.
The TikTokker wore a hospital vest necessary to stabilise her injuries as she detailed her trauma, showing a confronting image of herself in hospital at ‘her most critical stage’ (pictured)
‘No one imagined anything like this would happen,’ Ms Does said on social media (pictured, Ms Doe with an image of other Australians caught up in the crush, including Justina Cho, top left, who died as a result of her injuries)
Ms Doe’s posts followed the death of an Australian woman, Justina Cho, who succumbed to her injuries last month about two weeks after she was caught up in the deadly crowd crush.
Ms Cho, who was born in South Korea and moved to Australia when she was three years old, died after she was rushed to a hospital in a critical condition.
Her tragic death came two weeks after the death of her Australian friend, Grace Rached, who was just 12 days shy of celebrating her 24th birthday when she was killed in the stampede.
Ms Cho had only recently moved back to South Korea in the months before the crush and was showing her sister and two friends, Nathan Taverniti and Ms Rached, around Itaewon at the time of the crush.
This year was the first time Seoul’s highly-anticipated Halloween Festival had been properly held since Covid lockdowns.
According to local emergency responders, most of the victims were women in their early 20s and teenagers (pictured, the panicked crowds last October)
Police received the first call from a worried reveller shortly after 6.30pm local time on the night of October 31, before the full crush developed at about 10.20pm.
Officials confirmed dozens of revellers went into cardiac arrest at the scene with horrific photos and footage showing the streets and train station around the crush lined with bodies.
According to local emergency responders, most of the victims were women in their early 20s and teenagers.
Officials believe the crush was the result of a massive crowd flooding a narrow street near Hamilton Hotel, a local party hotspot, after hearing rumours of a celebrity sighting.
Dozens of people were given CPR on Itaewon’s streets (pictured, before the crush took hold) while many others were rushed to nearby hospitals
Dozens of people were given CPR on Itaewon’s streets while many others were rushed to nearby hospitals.
Photographs and videos on social media show horrific scenes of panic in the aftermath of the crush as people tried to flee.
One particularly distressing video showed dozens of people struggling to breathe and stay on their feet in the crowd as rescue workers struggled to free the severely injured.
More than 1,700 emergency workers were deployed from across South Korea to respond to one of the deadliest crowd crushes in recent history.
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