UNC grad escapes crowd surge in South Korea that killed at least 154

Hallie Kielb, a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, now works in South Korea as a English teacher. She was close to a "crowd surge" that has killed up to 154 people on the first day of what was to be a three-day Halloween celebration.

The parties began on Saturday night, Oct. 29. It’s a night that Kielb will never forget.

This week is one of national mourning in South Korea as the nation copes with the loss of many who tragically died in the Itaewon district of Seoul.

"We had heard there was going to be this massive crowd," said Kielb. It was close to 10 p.m. when she and her friends headed for a bar to celebrate Halloween. They could see the crowd growing in number.

"All of those alleys were packed. Absolutely packed," said Kielb. She added, "We also noticed no sort of crowd control. No police. Nothing like that. It was just a free-for-all."

She noticed that cell service was down so emergency alerts failed. "So it was complete chaos. I luckily had a gut feeling to get out of there and followed it," said Kielb.

She learned that one of her friends suffered bruised ribs. "She was going through that crowd right before the accident happened," said Kielb.

Over the next few days, the death toll climbed. "But also, no one was really talking about the accident. The society and culture here is to not talk about big things like this," said Kielb.

The experience changed her sense of safety and security forever.

"I’m just going to be really careful with how I approach crowds from now on, because this can happen anywhere, and we have seen it happen," she said.

Kielb says in most of South Korea, Halloween is not celebrated. However, the Itaewon district of Seoul attracts young people from around the world who do celebrate customs of many nations.