South Korean police blame deadly Halloween crush on negligence

South Korean Halloween Crush: Scores of young costumed partygoers, mostly women in their 20s, died in the disaster on October 29 in the capital's popular Itaewon nightlife area.

South Korean police on Friday blamed negligence and planning failures for last year's Halloween crowd crush in Seoul that killed more than 150 people.

South Korean Halloween Crush: The crush happened during Halloween celebrations in Itaewon, a district of South Korea's capital city Seoul.

Scores of young costumed partygoers, mostly women in their 20s, died in the disaster on October 29 in the capital's popular Itaewon nightlife area.

A special team that spent months combing through evidence and interviewing officials, said at the end of its probe that there had been massive planning and response failures -- but stopped short of blaming any top government or national police agency officials.

"Organisations that are legally obligated to prevent and respond to disasters -- police, district offices and Seoul Metro -- did not establish safety measures in advance or came up with poor plans," Sohn Jae-han, the team's head, told reporters.

"Appropriate measures were not taken even after receiving rescue requests" on the day of the disaster, he said.

Poor cooperation between agencies and delays in communications and relief efforts contributed to a higher death toll, he added.

Groups of the victims' families said they were not happy with the results of the probe.

Lee Jong-chul, the leader of one such group, said that it was impossible for the police to fairly and impartially investigate their own officers, calling for a fully independent investigation.

"I didn't trust this, ever since the special investigation team started probing the Itaewon disaster," he told local media.

He told the Yonhap news agency that it was disappointing -- but predictable -- that top officials including the interior minister and Seoul's mayor had not been investigated,