K-Pop singer and actor Lee Jihan, 24, killed in Seoul Halloween crowd crush
K-Pop star and actor Lee Jihan has been confirmed as one of the victims of the Seoul Halloween stampede that has killed over 150 people.
Jihan, 24, found fame on a South Korean singing competition, before successfully moving into to acting.
The two agencies representing the star – 935 Entertainment and 9Auto Entertainment – confirmed the news on Sunday.
Posting a black square on Instagram, they wrote in their statement that they were “heartbroken to be greeted with sad news” of his death and told fans Jihan “has become a star in the sky and left us”.
Expressing their “heartfelt condolences” to his family and all those who loved him, they called him “a sweet and warm friend to all”.
They also wrote about his “bright smile” and paid tribute to his “passion for acting”, wishing him well for his “last journey”.
Jihan found fame on South Korean reality show Produce 101 back in 2017, where 101 K-pop hopefuls competed to win a place in an 11-member boy band.
Despite not being picked to be part of the final band – Wanna One – Jihan used the platform to move onto acting, starring in the South Korean high-school drama Today Was Another Nam Hyun Day.
Former Produce 101 contestants Park Heeseok, Kim Do-hyun and Cho Jin Hyung also paid tribute. They wrote in a joint statement: “Ji Han has left this world and gone to a comfortable place. We ask that you say goodbye to him on his final path.”
Funerals for the victims are already underway and South Korea’s government said it will offer support for funeral expenses.
According to AllKPop, Ji Han’s funeral will be held on 1 November.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Sky News analysed videos from social media to show how celebrations turned deadly
Read more:
How did Seoul Halloween celebration turn into a deadly crush?
Other party-goers caught up in the crush, have described the “slow and agonising” horror as the disaster unfolded, with people unable to move or breathe when a large crowd pushed down a narrow street.
One witness, Nathan Taverniti, from Sydney, Australia, described the horror of watching his friend die in a now deleted TikTok video.
Mr Taverniti said: “I was there when she said she couldn’t breathe. We were yelling… ‘You have to go back, you have to turn around’… but nobody was listening.”
He described the situation not as a stampede but as a “slow and agonising” crush. Two of his other friends were also injured.
In his video, which was viewed over nine million times, Mr Taverniti tearfully continued: “I watched as people filmed, and sang and laughed while my friends were dying, along with many other people.
“You know how many people were going to that event. Why were you not prepared?”
Olivia Jacovic, another witness from Australia, described her clothes being torn and her arms bruised in the crush, with people “packed like sardines” in the street.
The 27-year-old, who lives and works in Seoul, told Channel 9 news: “People just couldn’t breathe. The shorter people were just trying to look up in the air to get some sort of air.”
She said the Halloween party was located near a hill and she had heard rumours of people having “fallen down” at the bottom, leading to a “domino effect” of people tripping over one another.
Ken Fallas, a Costa Rican architect who has worked in South Korea for the last eight years, described seeing lots of young people unable to process what they had just witnessed, and laughing because they were “too scared” and didn’t know how to react to what was going on.
The 32-year-old added: “Nobody knew what was happening, people were still partying with the emergency happening in front of us.”
Mourners pay tribute
South Korea is now in a period of national mourning following the Halloween stampede in the party district of Itaewon, Seoul, which largely claimed the lives of young people in their teens or 20s.
The cause of the crush is currently unclear, but some local media reports suggested the crowd rushed down the narrow street after hearing an unidentified celebrity was in the area.
It’s been confirmed that at least 26 foreign nationals have been killed in the tragedy, from countries including America, Australia, Iran, Uzbekistan, China and Norway.
Numerous K-pop music releases and events – many themed around Halloween – have been cancelled or postponed following the tragedy.
Two events with BTS member Kim Seok-jin scheduled for 30 and 31 October have been put on hold, and the 2022 Busan One Asia Festival concert featuring multiple South Korean singing stars, which had been due to take place on 30 October, has now been cancelled.
Entertainment
Adele bids tearful farewell to Las Vegas residency as star admits she doesn’t know when she’ll perform next
John David Washington says he felt like he had to conceal his desire to act because of the external expectations of him being the child of Denzel and Pauletta Washington.
He tells Sky News it took some time for him to pursue an acting career, choosing football instead to assert his “independence” and create his own “identity” separate from his famous family.
“I’ve been wanting to do this my whole life… but I was hiding it,” he said.
“I had to conceal that passion based on my relationship to the world and more specifically, my folks being in the industry, so I chose ball.
“I loved ball, but I was sort of hiding my love for the arts under a helmet – literally an American football helmet – and so when I wanted to become an actor, when I decided to pursue it, that was a big shock to some people.”
The 40-year-old actor says when he decided to pursue an acting career, he kept the decision quiet.
“Some people didn’t know I was even pursuing it professionally until I got a job,” he said.
John David with fellow actor Danielle Deadwyler. Pic: David Lee/ Netflix
Since switching to acting, John David has starred in a number of notable roles including the protagonist in Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, Ron Stallworth in BlacKkKlansman and Joshua in The Creator.
He also led the stage revival of the 2022 Tony-nominated play The Piano Lesson on Broadway alongside Samuel L Jackson.
“He [Jackson] originated the role [I play] in 1987 at Yale with Lloyd Richards and August Wilson,” John David said.
“So it was of great importance for us to learn from both he and Michael Potts about August Wilson. It was a great blessing for me, I think, for all of us to have him present on set.”
Read more from Sky News:
Squid Game creator: ‘I’ve become numb to the violence’
Rust premieres three years after fatal shooting
The Piano Lesson is the third August Wilson play to be adapted for the screen by Denzel Washington’s production company Mundy Lane Entertainment.
It is part of a pledge made by the Gladiator II actor to make all 10 of the playwright’s works into films.
The Netflix project is directed by another Washington family member, Malcolm, and stars most of the cast from the Broadway revival.
The Piano Lesson is Malcolm Washington’s directorial debut. Pic: Katia Washington/ Netflix
Set in 1936 Pittsburgh in the aftermath of the Great Depression, the film centres on a family heirloom, a piano, that is etched with the carvings of their family history made by their enslaved ancestor.
Malcolm says he started reading the play for the first time during the pandemic and immediately wanted to be involved in the film adaptation.
“I think with this movie, reclamation of story and identity is so central to the theme and it’s something that’s central to my life where I both acknowledge the fertile ground that I was raised on and who I am today.
“That’s what Wining Boy [played by Michael Potts] really is trying to do, he’s trying to build on that legacy, so that’s a story that really resonated with me.”
The filmmaker added: “I take all the gifts that my ancestors laid in front of me, and I’m trying to build something for the next generation to pass down – all of their gifts, plus mine to the next generation and let them build on it.”
Malcolm has dedicated his directorial debut to his mother, Pauletta Washington. Pic: David Lee/Netflix
Malcolm says his goal was to put family at the forefront of the production. By dedicating his feature debut to “Mama”, he is acknowledging the dedication and sacrifices that mothers make for the growth of their families.
“There’s so much pointing to my mother in particular, who inspired this adaptation so much. I see so much of her life in Berniece’s character [played by Danielle Deadwyler] – and that became a guiding light for me in this adaptation,” he said.
“As we made this thing and started reconnecting with our ancestors, my mum became like a kind of representative of them.
“She’s the matriarch of our family. She tells me about my grandparents and great-grandparents and the line that I come from, and I see them in her.
“And when the movie ends, I want people to kind of have that moment of reflection for their own lives. So in dedicating it to her, I was trying to dedicate it to all mums everywhere.”
The Piano Lesson is now available on Netflix.
Blockbuster Wicked has landed the largest opening weekend of 2024 at Vue International.
The film, starring Oscar-nominated actress Cynthia Erivo and Grammy-winning pop star Ariana Grande as Elphaba and Glinda, surpassed both Gladiator II and Paddington In Peru.
It has also had the largest opening weekend for a stage musical adaptation in the cinema chain’s history.
A boss for Vue International said it had seen a “sea of pink and green” over the weekend.
Ariana Grande (left) as Glinda and Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba in the film. Pic: PA
Pic: PA
Pic: PA
Released on Friday, Wicked is up 60% on Les Miserables’ opening weekend in 2012 and three times larger than the 2022 film adaptation of Matilda.
Founder and chief executive of Vue International Tim Richards said: “Vue has seen a sea of pink and green over the opening weekend of Wicked, which has shown continued high demand for the big screen experience.
“We saw record-breaking pre-sales for Wicked, followed by a chart-topping opening weekend – the biggest for 2024.”
The film is the first of two parts, with the second expected in November next year.
Wicked and Gladiator II – known together as Glicked – have reportedly failed to beat out Barbenheimer, Barbie and Oppenheimer, in its own opening weekend last summer.
Read more from Sky News:
Leicester City sack manager
Bar staff to be trained to deal with drink spiking
Army officer charged over dummy grenade alert at airport
Glicked brought in £215m in worldwide ticket sales – with Wicked making the majority of that.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports8 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway