South Korean actor Yoo Ah In denies he is the cause of Halloween crowd crush
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 3 — South Korean actor Yoo Ah In has insisted that he is not to be blamed for the Halloween crowd crush in Seoul that killed 156 people.
This was after online rumours that an A-list star’s presence at a bar caused a huge crowd to swarm Itaewon on October 29.
According to netizens, Yoo who lives in the area and is a frequent visitor to the nightlight district, was said to be the celebrity that triggered the tragedy.
However, authorities have clarified that they have yet to verify the cause of the crowd surge, 8 Days reported.
Yoo’s agency has since denied the rumours, insisting that he was abroad and “has no part of what happened in Itaewon”.
“He had business outside the country, so he left Korea on Oct 29 and is currently overseas,” it said in a statement.
Meanwhile, influencer Park Jung Kyu claimed that netizens have also pointed the finger at him.
“I first want to express my deepest condolences to the victims. It really hurts. However, I’ve been receiving a lot of hate messages from people online saying that people were crowding over to the area where the crush happened to come to the bar that I was in, but that’s nonsense,” Park said.
“I only had to go into one of the bars to escape the large crowd outside and stayed indoors for just 30 minutes because the bartenders said it looked too dangerous outside. The rumours are going out of hand,” he added.
Other celebrities thought to be the cause were former baseball cheerleader Kim Yuna and actor Lee Ji Han, both of whom were casualties of the crowd surge.
