Just weeks before the disaster, a young Sydney woman who was killed in a Halloween stampede in Seoul, South Korea, wrote a frightening message about death.
When Grace Rached and three of her pals went out to celebrate in the downtown Itaewon neighborhood on Saturday night, she was 12 days away from turning 24 and wearing an Audrey Hepburn costume.
The film production assistant was one of 153 persons died in what her friend Nathan Taverniti described on Tik Tok as a “slow and agonizing crush” after becoming stuck in a swarm of people rushing to meet a local star.
On Monday morning, loved ones could be seen flooding into the Sydney house of her parents.
A close acquaintance revealed to Daily Mail Australia that the young woman’s family preferred to cope with her untimely demise “privately” while crying.
Ms. Rached has been touring the globe.
She published a Tik Tok video of herself on a vacation to Bali only two days before to the accident, in which she was shown swimming, cycling, dancing, and drinking fire shots with her companions on the Indonesian resort island.
The video’s caption said, “Thanks Bali, you were a fun.”
Ms. Rached published a menacing video titled “what I’ve learnt in my nearly 24 years of life” in another post dated August of this year.
When you go, nothing follows you, she wrote in the video. Enjoy your stay here while you can.
Shahn Devendran, executive producer of Electriclime Films, called Ms. Rached “kind-hearted.”
According to Mr. Devendran, this is very awful news.
Grace was a jovial, outgoing, compassionate, and passionate person who enjoyed making movies and entertaining others. Her many relatives, friends, and the Electriclime films family will all miss her dearly.
After speaking with Ms. Rached’s family, Mr. Devendran said he would refrain from making any additional comments since they want to grieve quietly.
Prior to her graduation from Canterbury Girls’ High School in 2016, Ms. Rached attended there.
The Department of Education sent the following statement to Daily Mail Australia: “We are profoundly grieved to hear of the unfortunate loss of a former Canterbury Girls High School student.
The student’s family and the larger school community have our profound condolences and our warmest sympathy.
For all impacted students and employees, the school will provide counseling and assistance.
Over the weekend, her Tik Tok page was inundated with loving comments and tributes from her friends and family.
I hope you rest in peace, Grace. What a terrible circumstance you were in. I’m sending thoughts for your family and friends.
Rest in peace, my darling, said another.
“Rest peacefully. Another person remarked, “You deserved so much better.
With her employer, the independent film firm Electric Lime Films, Ms. Rached traveled extensively.
The young lady called her jet-setting lifestyle “electrifying” in an online interview posted on the business’ website.
“Singapore was a fantasy!”
She uttered, ”
I cherished the opportunity to interact with individuals from various walks of life and gain knowledge about the business world. The experience of traveling always opens one’s eyes.
Mr. Taverniti said in a heartbreaking Tik Tok video on Sunday that he attempted to get Ms. Rached out of the oppressive turmoil but was unable.
He said on TikTok, “I was there when she stated she couldn’t breathe and I grabbed one of my friend’s hands.”
“There was a gradual, agonizing crush; there was no stampede.”
It was impossible (to rescue her), he previously told a South Korean publication. “All I could see was a wall of people.”
Later, he saw her being carried away on a stretcher but was unable to locate her.
A teenage tattoo artist posted on social media that her sister was injured in the rush and is now in the ICU.
The sisters, who were present at the celebration with Ms. Rached at the time and who were born in South Korea but were raised in Sydney,
Mr. Taverniti said that he had only made the video upon reaching his lodging after discovering his friend’s death, which he had only managed to do thanks to a few ‘kind-hearted reporters’ from the American ABC network.
A representative for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has confirmed that one Australian citizen perished in the disaster, which also claimed the lives of 18 other foreign nationals.
His statement said, “The Australian Government expresses its sympathies to the family and all those impacted by this unfortunate occurrence.”
We respectfully request that the family’s privacy be respected at this trying time.
Officials from the consulate assisted “a number of other Australians who were present at the incident” and were in touch with the dead woman’s relatives in Australia.
Olivia Jacovic, a 27-year-old West Australian living in Seoul, described to Channel Nine how she and her companions took 40 minutes to exit the metro station near the scene before they barely avoided the fatal crush.
We were able to get to the sides, she claimed, and were standing up on this brick wall with a view of above. “It was incredibly hard, I had bruises on my arms from trying to move out,” she added.
“It was basically shoulder to shoulder, people couldn’t breathe, and the shorter people were trying to look up in the air to get some oxygen,” one person said.
Ms. Jacovic said that in order to escape the thronging mob, she had to put up a valiant fight.
“I simply wanted to leave there,” I don’t care if my clothes are ripping,” she said.
Mr. Taverniti attributed the catastrophe to a lack of preparation by the police and planning.
“I watched as people recorded, sung, and laughed as my friends and many other people were dying,” he claimed.
“There weren’t enough police officers and nobody was doing anything to halt the mob, so I was there trying to pull people out,” she said.
“You have to turn around, you have to go back, people are dying,” we said, but nobody listened.
‘I waited for the cops to show up where I was for 30 minutes. More police arrived after more than an hour, and emergency services took even longer.
He backed up earlier reports that volunteers were performing CPR.
“There were people lying on the ground getting CPR,” Mr. Taverniti recalled. “Not by medical personnel, but by random people, whoever could.”
“I feel sorry. This scenario might have been averted so simply, but no one would listen, and I am sad.
Julia Cho, a Sydney resident who was one of Mr. Taverniti’s four pals, also recounted her story on TikTok.
She also gave a derogatory evaluation of the police and other agencies.
Despite being aware that there were too many people on the streets with nowhere to go, she said that local officials were not on the lookout and left defenseless innocent people in the streets.
“This occurred pretty late at night. People were crushed, falling over one another, and suffocating.
“The authorities and the leaders bear sole responsibility and have let down their people.”
Halloween-themed revelers are seen leaving the scene in Seoul after a crush claimed at least 146 lives.
Emergency personnel in Seoul were overburdened by the tragic crush of a throng of 100,000 people attending the city’s 2022 Halloween Festival.
The event was held in its entirety for the first time since Covid, and the crush happened just after 10 o’clock local time (8pm EADT).
Numerous persons had cardiac arrest, according to officials, and more fatalities are anticipated. Unknown numbers of patients are still in serious condition at the hospital.
At least 25 victims were seen in photos taken at the site, covered in yellow blankets and lying on the ground in Seoul’s streets. Photographs were taken of another line of corpses wrapped in blue blankets.
South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol remarked on Sunday morning that the fatal stampede “should not have occurred” as the full scope of the catastrophe was still being realized.
Yoon said in a national speech that “a catastrophe and calamity occurred in the center of Seoul that should not have happened” and vowed to “thoroughly examine” the situation to make sure it wouldn’t happen again.
Many of the victims, many of whom were women in their 20s, were adolescents or in their early 20s, according to local emergency services.
Due to the overwhelming number of deaths, a temporary morgue was put up in a nearby building.
According to the authorities, a big throng started pressing forward in a small alleyway outside the Hamilton Hotel, a popular gathering place for revelers in Seoul, when they heard rumors that a celebrity was there.
On the streets of Itaewon, dozens of victims received CPR while several more were transported to local hospitals.
As one witness put it, “People were heaped on top of one other like a mausoleum.” Some seemed to be dead at that moment, while others were rapidly losing consciousness.
Images and videos posted on social media depict the horrifying fear that followed the crush and people’s frantic attempts to flee the tragic building.
A particularly upsetting video showed hundreds of individuals in the crowd straining to breathe and maintain their balance as rescue officials tried to remove those who needed medical attention from the mob.
In South Korea, more than 1,700 emergency personnel were sent to one of the bloodiest crowd crushes in recent memory.
More video taken from above the street saw hundreds of first responders frantically doing CPR on victims laying on the pavement.
In anticipation of the large crowds on Saturday night, hundreds of police officers had been stationed in the area, but it was said that they were finding it difficult to maintain order just before the tragedy occurred.