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| Bereaved families of the crowd surge tragedy in Itaewon hold a memorial service for Lunar New Year near a subway station in the area, Jan. 22. Yonhap |
Bereaved families of the Itaewon crowd surge victims held a joint memorial service for their loved ones Sunday, the first Lunar New Year since the deadly tragedy in the Seoul neighborhood last year.
Some 80 family members and relatives of those who died in the Oct. 29 incident gathered at a memorial altar set up near Noksapyeong Station at 3 p.m. to pay their respects.
Instead of the food typically prepared for Lunar New Year memorial services, they brought snacks, pizza, beer and beef jerky for the victims, who were mostly in their 20s.
Many of them burst out into tears as they paid their respects to the victims and bowed ― some cried as they stroked the framed photos of their loved ones at the memorial altar.
"In a normal year, it would have been a festive time for families to meet and talk. But it isn't like that, and it won't be from now on," Lee Jong-cheol, the head of the group of the victims' families, said.
Families of the 2014 Sewol ferry sinking victims also held a memorial service in central Seoul.
"Please come together to make a safer world for our children," Kim Jong-ki, a member of the group representing the bereaved families, said. (Yonhap)
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