Desperate rescuers were seen scrambling to try and reach the victims of the Seoul Halloween crush in harrowing scenes as eyewitnesses reported survivors spending hours to try and save people.
More than 150 people have died and hundreds left injured in a fatal crush in Seoul late last night.
Local shopkeepers and residents became heroes as they knelt until their knees bled to save the lives of the young people trampled in the chaos.
Harrowing photos from the scene show body bags lying in the street, while social media footage showed medics and citizens rushing to the victims' aid.
In one horrific clip emergency responders desperately try to reach the victims trapped in the narrow alleyway.
The panicked partygoers can be heard screaming for help as a terrified man tries to clamber up the wall beside him in a desperate attempt to escape.
Once the stampede was over, victims were laid out for emergency first aid, with heroic passersby ripping their bloodied knees after kneeling for hours to administer life-saving CPR for the trampled revellers.
One eyewitness told the Yonhap News Agency: "As people in the front fell over, those in the back were crushed."
Another described the scene as a "tomb".
An English teacher recounted what she saw as she passed through Itaewon on Saturday night.
Emily Farmer, 27, who was walking through the district with her friends, said they were “overwhelmed” by the crowds on the street and decided to enter a bar.
A short while later, she received an emergency message on her phone from the government alerting them to a "dangerous situation in the area"
When she left the bar around midnight, she finally learned what horrors had been happening just a few feet away.
“It was horrible,” she said. “Not everyone died instantly.”
“They were still pulling people (out) because it was so crowded,” she added.
People were also still partying in the streets, completely "oblivious to what was happening", she added.
Seoul.co reported: “Four to five citizens clinging to each patient on the [...] site, rubbing their limbs, wiping blood, and helping to expand the airway so that they do not choke.
"Two or three incumbent doctors, nurses, and ordinary citizens took turns per patient, and continued CPR relay and rescue activities in the middle of the road until their knees broke and bled.”
At one point, dozens of victims collapsed at the same time before the heroic citizens and local shopkeepers rushed to their aid.
Another group of residents scrambled to help paramedics loading patients on stretchers and tried "with all their might to pull the tangled victims out", the outlet reported.
A doctor at the scene, who performed CPR on some of the victims, said: "Suddenly, I saw firefighters laying two female patients on the street and performing CPR."
"I jumped right into the scene as [...] medical staff,” he said.
A nurse, who was visiting Itaewon to enjoy the Halloween festivities, said other rescuers were calling out for medical professionals to help.
He said he lost count of how many times he performed CPR.
Employees from nearby stores also helped responders, making it easier for them to perform life-saving operations by providing scissors, ripping clothes and offering water to the victims.
The cause of the crush remains unknown, but emergency officials said a huge crowd celebrating in the popular district surged into an alley on Saturday night, with a large number of people falling down in the narrow passageway near a hotel. They added that the death toll could rise.
Choi Sung-beom, head of the Yongsan Fire Station, said the death toll includes 19 foreigners. He told a briefing at the scene 82 people were injured, 19 of them seriously.
Many of those killed were near a nightclub, Choi said. Many of the victims were women in their 20s, while the foreigners killed included people from China, Iran, Uzbekistan and Norway.
Russian news agency TASS reported that two Russian nationals were killed and one injured.
But officials are still assessing thousands of missing persons reports as families desperately await news of their loved ones.
One distraught mother vowed to keep searching for her daughter after she went missing following the crush, CNN reports.
Ahn Yeon-seon last saw her daughter on Saturday, when the 19-year-old asked for a bit of cash so she could celebrate spooky season with her boyfriend in Seoul's trendy nightlife spot, Itaewon.
But within a few hours, tragedy struck, when her daughter's partner called in tears to tell her she was among the 153 killed.
Seol Ye-sol wanted to celebrate the occasion because her boyfriend was about to undertake his mandatory military service.
The boyfriend told Ahn that Seol had died "under a pile of people for over an hour".
Ahn said the boyfriend desperately tried to pull her out "but couldn't".
After hearing the horrific news, Ahn sprung into action and tried to search local hospitals for any sight of her daughter.
“I’ll just keep searching,” Ahn told the Yonhap News Agency from Soonchunghyang University Hospital, where many of the victims were taken.
Though she was just 19, Seol was already working to support her family and also helped her mother to raise her younger siblings after her father died.
Local media reports earlier said crowds had rushed to a nearby bar after hearing that an unidentified celebrity was visiting.
Early on Sunday costumes and personal belongings mingled with blood spots in the narrow street. Survivors huddled under emergency blankets amid throngs of emergency workers, police, and media.
One unnamed witness described seeing people crushed to death in the stampede.
