POLICE are continuing to investigate the cause of the horrific crowd surge that led to the killing of more than 150 people in the South Korean capital, Seoul, on Saturday.

The disaster, during Halloween festivities in the popular Itaewon district, left dozens injured with many in a critical condition.

A 475-member task force has been set up to investigate the crush.

Officers are analysing security camera footage in the area and video clips posted on social media. 

Police chief, Nam Gu Jun, said yesterday that scores of witnesses and survivors had already been interviewed and a team of forensic experts were on the scene.

Prime Minister Han Duck Soo said yesterday: “The government will thoroughly investigate the cause of the incident and do its best to make necessary improvements of systems to prevent a similar accident from recurring.”

Some witnesses said that the stampede was caused by people in the upper part of the estimated 100,000 crowd, pushing others in the lower area. Local media also questioned an apparent lack of safety preparations for the large crowd.

Halloween festivities in Itaewon have no official organisers.

South Korean police said on Monday that they had no procedures for handling incidents such as crowd surges during an event that has no organisers.