• 159 individuals, largely young people who were out partying, died in crush.
• Mr. Lee, whose 28-year-old daughter Lee Joo-young died in the crush.
• “These multiple overlapping failures lead to vast number of human casualties” .

The long-awaited investigation into the fatal crowd crush in Seoul last October has largely absolved senior government officials of any wrongdoing.

Instead, the report blamed regional municipal and emergency service leaders for inadequate disaster planning and response.

The media reported that the report was “cutting off the lizard’s tail to spare the skull,” according to bereaved father Lee Jung-min.

159 individuals, largely young people who were out partying, died in the fatal crush.

To celebrate Halloween, they had descended upon Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood, a well-known nightlife area with a maze of narrow streets and alleyways filled with clubs and eateries. Some reports claim that evening’s crowd exceeded 100,000.

Six persons have been detained on suspicion of carelessness, including the district’s mayor and the area’s previous police chief from the nearby Yongsan district.

17 additional people, including Seoul’s police chief, should also be brought to justice, according to the investigating officers.

It is “impossible” to argue that city officials, the national police, and the interior ministry, which is in charge of supervising South Korea’s police, violated their obligations, according to Son Je-hwan, the director of a special police division established to look into the incident.

Higher-level officials should be held accountable, according to the families of the victims and the South Korean public.

Lee Sang-resignation min’s as interior minister was demanded in a motion that was approved by the South Korean parliament in December.

Mr Lee, whose 28-year-old daughter Lee Joo-young died in the crush, told the Media he wanted the “officials in command” to take responsibility.

“This means the interior minister, the national police chief, even the prime minister – they should all take responsibility,” he said.

His daughter was in Itaewon with her fiancé, who passed out but survived, and the couple had been due to marry this year.

“I am determined to get an apology from those in power, so my daughter can close her eyes in peace. I’ve told her, Dad will do his best,” Mr. Lee said.

But Mr. Son said local government, police, fire department and metro officials were among those who had a “legal responsibility to prevent and respond to disasters“.

The inspector reported that neither preventive nor suitable actions were taken in response to emergency calls for assistance.

Inaccurate appraisals of the situation resulted in information being relayed slowly and a lack of cooperation amongst organizations, he continued.

“These multiple overlapping failures lead to vast number of human casualties,” he said.

180 recordings from CCTV cameras, social media, and press materials were analysed by the special investigation unit, which also looked into 548 other individuals.

Hours before the fatal crush, the first contact to the police came in at 18:34 local time. Over the following three and a half hours, the area received at least 10 more emergency calls.

Records reveal that out of the 11 calls alerting them to unsafe levels of overcrowding, the police only mobilized officers for four of them.

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