Watch: Scores of emergency services attended victims of Seoul's Halloween crush disaster

Survivors of the deadly Seoul Halloween crush have been speaking of their horror at watching friends and strangers suffocate in an alleyway as dance music blared into the night. 

At least 153 people died when crowds of revellers thronged the Itaewon district of South Korea's capital. 

"People began pushing from behind, it was like a wave - there was nothing you could do," Nuhyil Ahammed told the BBC. 

"I couldn't sleep last night. I can still see people dying in front of me."

The 32-year-old, who spoke to the BBC on Sunday afternoon, said he was caught in the crush and there was nothing anyone could have done to save others or themselves. 

Distressing videos of the event have spread across social media. Mr Ahammed himself shared his traumatising experience on Instagram.

The footage shows people, mostly teens or in their 20s, packed into a narrow, sloped alley so tightly they couldn't move. They then started being pushed in every direction. Some were dragged to the floor. Others couldn't breathe. 

Itaewon is one of the most popular neighbourhoods in Seoul for a night out. Locals and foreigners flock there every weekend, but Halloween is one of the busiest nights of the year. The area was hosting its first unmasked Halloween celebrations since Covid when the disaster happened. 

An estimated 100,000 people came to celebrate there on Saturday. For the first time since Covid, gathering sizes were not limited and people did not need to wear masks outside. 

But South Korea's Interior Minister Lee Sang-min said officials did not anticipate such crowds in Itaewon's narrow streets.

"The expected size of the crowd in Itaewon did not deviate much from the previous years, so I understand that the personnel were deployed at a similar scale as before."

He said many officers had in fact been deployed elsewhere in the capital on Saturday evening.

"I am not certain about the exact number of police personnel deployed [to Itaewon] but a considerable number had been deployed at Gwanghwamun where a large crowd was expected for a protest," he told a briefing.

At least 82 people were also injured in the disaster. Mr Lee said some victims remained unidentified because they were below the age of 17 or did not have an adult ID.

President Yoon Suk-yeol has called for an investigation into the cause of the crush and declared a period of national mourning. 

Another friend tried to stop him, Mr Ahammed recalled, but the young man wouldn't stop. Next to them, he added, some people were still applying make-up like nothing had happened. 

Slowly the true extent of the disaster revealed itself. The ambulances were so full with the injured who needed to be taken to hospital that they left behind the bodies of those who had died for up to an hour.