SEOUL, South Korea (AP) \u2014 In one moment, thousands of Halloween revelers crammed into the narrow, vibrant streets of Seoul\u2019s most cosmopolitan neighborhood, eager to show off their capes, wizard hats and bat wings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the next, a surge of panic spread as an unmanageable mass of people jammed into a narrow alley in Itaewon. Toppled revelers were trapped for as long as 40 minutes, stacked on one another \u201clike dominoes\u201d in a chaotic crush so intense that clothes were ripped off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A stunned Seoul was just beginning on Monday to put together the huge scope of the\u00a0crowd surge\u00a0on Saturday night that\u00a0killed at least 154, mostly people in their 20s and 30s, including foreign nationals. Officials said they expected more deaths because there were nearly 150 others injured, 33 of them in serious conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Witnesses described a\u00a0nightmarish scene as people performed CPR on the dying and carried limp bodies to ambulances, while dance music pulsed from garish clubs lit in bright neon. Others tried desperately to pull out those trapped at the bottom of the crush of people, but often failed because there were too many of the fallen on top of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe were just stuck together so tightly we couldn\u2019t even shift to call out and report the situation,\u201d said one survivor, surnamed Lee. \u201cWe were strangers, but we held each others\u2019 hands and repeatedly shouted out, \u2018Let\u2019s survive!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kim Mi Sung, who works for a non-profit organization in Itaewon, told The Associated Press that nine out of the 10 people she gave CPR to eventually died. Many were bleeding from their noses and mouths. Most were women who dressed as witches or were in other Halloween costumes; two were foreigners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was like a hell,\u201d Kim said. \u201cI still can\u2019t believe what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this ultra-wired, high-tech country, anguish, terror and grief \u2014 as well as many of the details of what happened \u2014 are playing out most vividly on social media. Users posted messages desperately seeking friends and loved ones, as witnesses and survivors described what they went through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI thought I was dying,\u201d one woman said in posts on Twitter. \u201cMy entire body was stuck among everyone else, while people laughed from a terrace and videotaped us. I thought I would really die if I cried out. I stretched my hands out to (others) who were above me and I managed to get out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An unidentified woman in her 20s wept as she described the scene to the Yonhap news agency: \u201cIt looked like the graves of people piled upon one another. Some of them were slowly losing consciousness and others seemed to have already died.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A man, surnamed Kong, said he managed to escape to a nearby bar with his friends after the crush happened. He saw through the bar windows that people were falling on top of each other \u201clike dominoes,\u201d Yonhap reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When a 27-year-old office worker who gave only his surname, Choi, left the bar he\u2019d been in during the crush, he saw dozens of police and paramedics. \u201cIt kind of looked like a war zone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bodies of 10 to 15 people were lined up in front of the King Kebab restaurant on the asphalt and were being covered up with blue tarps as he walked by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt looked like they were sleeping \u2014 eyes closed, mouth opened. They looked like mannequins,\u201d Choi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Friends and family members gathered at a local government office to try to find news about the missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n