Seoul the crush happened in a district of the south korean capital called Taiwan.

It is a popular nightlife area of the city and often has large numbers of visitors.

The crush happened in a narrow alleyway.

An investigation is now underway into what caused the tragedy, a warning that this next report includes distressing images.

It was a night of youthful revelry that turned into a real life horror story when a crush in the south korean capital, Seoul Left over 150 dead.

Around 100,000 people are thought to have flocked to the narrow alleyways of Taiwan.

What happened next in the streets remains unclear, but as dozens of young people collapsed strangers administered Cpr to those in need, witnesses described scenes of chaos unfolding on the streets around them.

We came here around 10 p.m. What we saw was like a scene from a movie in front of the hotel over there, like things that happened during the war.

They were doing CPR and people were rushing around and nothing was being contained.

It was completely out of control.

There's so many people with people I like turn around and I told the crowd you can't come this way, people are dying.

Mhm.

Because I already knew how bad it was.

South korean President SEOL visited the scene before announcing a period of national mourning.

It's positive as president who is responsible for people's lives and safety.

My heart is heavy and I struggle to cope with my grief.

The government will designate the period from today until the accident is brought under control as a period of national mourning and will place top priority in administrative affairs in recovery and follow up measures.

Over 350 missing person reports have been filed since Saturday night.

So while the country begins to come to terms with a national tragedy, for the families of those unaccounted for, all they can do is wait for the news nobody wants to hear.

I'm joined now by journalist frank smith in Seoul frank.

Do we have any further information about how this could have happened?

Well, what I can tell you is that Halloween and Halloween event, a Halloween party took place here in Taiwan.

It's the foreign entertainment district of Seoul.

Just 50 m from exit number one of the Taiwan station is the alleyway behind me where the tragedy took place thousands of people were crushed together, some trying to get up to the top of the alley where many of the nightclubs and bars are low, Some trying to move down, there was a crush of people somewhere pushed underneath that crowd as more people pushed forward and it seems that they suffocated and suffered heart failure to the latest death toll being 150 again, still several, perhaps more than a dozen in serious condition is just terrible.

We know it was mostly young people who died on what was supposed to be a night out, having fun.

What has the reaction been to this in Korea?

Well here in, in in south Korea across the country, Halloween festivals have been canceled.

President Yoon Suk Eul has ordered that the flags at government buildings across the country be lowered to half mast.

In addition, he's, he's designated a week of mourning, one week of mourning period for for those that have lost their lives and for their family.

I mean, these are such hard scenes to watch for anyone who's been in a big crowd.

Is this normal to see crowds of this size in this part of Seoul?

Is it a regular occurrence there?

Well, one of the comments that came out from people in the last couple of days was that last year uh following this tragedy, was that last year on Halloween, a lot of people, there were crowds of people here in this district and actually in in other districts as well and in Hong dae on, they had club night previously many, many years ago.

And you would see again thousands of people crushed together in Myeongdong, the popular shopping district just eight days ago, I was at a demonstration in which thousands of people again were crushed together.

Certainly crowd control is going to be one of the issues that the government is going to look at with the investigation that that's to follow Claire.

All right, thank you very much for that.

That's frank smith for us in Seoul with that update.