By Alex Jensen
SEOUL
South Korean police say an organizer of a tragedy-hit local concert was discovered dead Saturday morning after apparently committing suicide, according to national news agency Yonhap.
The body of the employee of Gyeonggi Institute of Science and Technology Promotion was reportedly found at around 7.00 local time (1.00 Turkish time) in Seongnam, where the concert had been held the day before at the outdoor Pangyo Techno Valley on the outskirts of Seoul.
The man was under investigation after 27 people were killed or injured when the ventilation grate they were standing on gave way during a performance by K-pop group 4Minute in front of a crowd of around 700 -- the grate had been protecting a 20-meter drop down a concrete parking lot shaft.
Friday’s death toll remained at 16 as of Saturday afternoon -- local officials confirmed that several more people were in critical condition as 11 were being treated at local hospitals.
A representative for a temporary accident response headquarters was offering regular media briefings -- and indicated that the grate had collapsed under excessive weight.
Prime Minister Chung Hong-won also arrived at the scene Friday night, having remained in his position despite offering to resign after 300 lives were lost following a ferry sinking off South Korea’s southwest coast earlier in the year.
Since the Sewol disaster on April 16 -- when the victims were mostly high school students, and whose rescued vice principal subsequently took his own life -- public safety has been a particularly sensitive topic in the country.
No teenagers were reported to be among the victims of Friday’s concert accident after an initial identification process.
A puff of dust could be seen on video footage shown on local news networks -- but the performance continued as 4Minute members were apparently unaware of what had happened.
Witnesses told Yonhap that there were no safety warnings around the ventilation grate in question -- though concert-goers were reportedly asked to step away from the platform, which offered a better view of the stage.
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