Man tries to escape Itaewon crush by climbing up wall over crowd

There were some cheers initially, perhaps by people thinking it was a stunt.

Tan Min-Wei | October 31, 2022, 07:01 PM

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Footage continues to emerge from the Oct. 29 tragedy in the Itaewon district of South Korea where over 150 people were killed in a crowd crush.

Desperate times

Those who perished were reportedly trapped due to the surge in the number of people.

Some were fortunate to be able to escape when surrounding businesses opened their doors to let people in and find refuge.

However, there are accusations that some businesses may have turned people away:

https://twitter.com/mk_grdnr/status/1586759413989347332

Desperate measures

In order to get out of the cramped situation, some took extreme measures to escape.

One man was seen scaling a wall to climb out of the crowd in a bid to make his way to safety.

A YouTube video by Korenszo Tube showed a street in Itaewon filled with people.

At around the 1-minute 42-second mark, a man appeared out of the crowd as he climbed up the side of the building as the crowd below him continued to shuffle past slowly.

He managed to climb up the wall by using the slatted design of the building for grip and footholds.

Gif via Korenzo Tube/YouTube

Some in the crowd watched him climb, while cheers off-camera could be heard.

The man climbing the wall appeared to not acknowledge the cheers.

He instead climbed over a store sign and made his way away from the centre of the street.

Gif via Korenzo Tube/YouTube

The camera turned away from the man for a moment, and another cheer was heard.

When the camera panned back, the man was beginning to climb down, having possibly knocked off a lit "T" from the street sign.

Gif via Korenzo Tube/YouTube

Below him, another man could be seen extending his hands to help the climber down.

What happened to the climber is not known, but he appeared to at least have successfully changed direction to move away from the middle of the street.

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Top image via Korenzo Tube/YouTube