Dozens Hurt in Amusement Park Stampede

Dozens of people were injured trying to enter Lotte World amusement park in Seoul after a crowd of about 70,000 showed up for a free admission promotion yesterday morning.

The free admission event, which was originally planned to continue until March 31, was held in order to publicly apologize for the death of a roller coaster passenger earlier this month.

By 4:00 a.m., tens of thousands of people, mostly from the Seoul Metropolitan area and Chungcheong Province, gathered in front of the four gates of the amusement park. By 9:30 a.m., the park’s opening time, a total of 70,000 were ready to enter the park.

Observers say the Songpa Police warned Lotte World several times that it needed to be prepared ahead of time for just such an occurrence, but Lotte World did not request police’s assistance.

Lotte World announced that it has canceled the free admission promotion.

wing@donga.com