South Korean lawmakers approve fresh probe into deadly 2022 Halloween crowd crush

ANKARA

South Korea's parliament on Thursday passed a special bill mandating a new investigation into a fatal crowd crush in 2022 that killed 159 people, according to local media.

Passed in a 256-0 vote with three abstentions, the bill calls for a committee to investigate the root cause of the deadly incident that took place in the capital Seoul's entertainment district of Itaewon on Oct. 29, the South Korean Yonhap News Agency reported.

The bill's passage came after the ruling People Power Party (PPP) of President Yoon Suk Yeol and main opposition Democratic Party (DP) reached in agreement to bring a revised bill to parliament.

President Yoon had vetoed an earlier bill that the opposition-dominated National Assembly had passed in January.

Under the revised bill, the investigative committee will not be able to conduct investigations ex officio or seek arrest warrants and will operate for up to a year, with the possibility of extending its term by up to three months, according to the report.

In October 2022, 159 people, most of them young, perished in the Itaewon district crowd crush during Halloween festivities.

It marked the country's worst incident of mass death since the 2014 Sewol ferry disaster that killed 304 people, most of them high school students.

Last year, the opposition-controlled National Assembly passed an impeachment motion against Interior Minister Lee Sang-min over the incident however, later the Constitutional Court unanimously dismissed the National Assembly's impeachment of Lee over the incident.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid