Lotte World stampede injures many!

Apparently Lotte World in Korea was having a promotion that gave free admission to the first 35,000 patrons over a 6-day period of time. People literally trampled each other to get the ticket/vouchers. After it was all over 35 people had to be treated for injuries. The park claims they did everything by the book, and even hired 210 security guards to keep things safe. It seems like all the security may have been inside the park, or security outside wasn't adequate for the crowds.

This is the second incident in the past month at Lotte World. Last month an off-duty employee who was intoxicated, died on the parks Atlantis-themed water coaster.

This reminds me of the people tossing their kids over the wall at Hong Kong Disneyland.

I saw this on tv yesterday withot knowing which park it was. The problem is that more than 60.000 people showed up in the morning! It seems that the park entrance is not out in the open, it is inside a building. So people had to go through doors. Apparantly the park cancelled the whole thing when they saw the massive attendance but how can you communicate this to 60.000 people who kept pushing from the the back.

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I'm dating myself here, but after reading Kitsch' post this whole event reminds me of The Who concert in Cincinnati back in 1979(?). Almost the exact same incident. People pushing from the back causing people in the front to be crushed, smothered, and eventually trampled. I know it's not coaster related but it was the first thing to enter my mind.

The good part is that nobody died, the bad part is that it had to happen in the first place...bad planning by Lotte.

It's because of that concert that any show in Ohio can't have more than X number of general admission seats (1000?).

From what I remember, people outside heard the sound check, mistakenly thought the concert was starting, and began pushing toward the front trying to get in.

The doors to the coliseum were locked until almost the last minute, and when they were finally open, people just began rushing in, since it was first come- first served (no reserved seating). 11 people died, mostly from suffocation. *** Edited 3/29/2006 10:55:16 PM UTC by RatherGoodBear***

Yep! That was it RGB.

I was only 9-10 years old at the time, but I also had my memory refreshed about a week ago on one of VH1 top 100 countdowns. It was horrible from the angle that the dead/dying were outside being cared for, and The Who themselves never knew what happened until after the concert.