Actor and K-pop singer Lee Jihan was one of the victims of the Halloween crowd crush tragedy in the Itaewon neighborhood of Seoul, South Korea. He was 24.
According to multiple outlets cited by Entertainment Tonight, Lee’s agents at 935 Entertainment confirmed on Instagram that the rising star had been killed during the fatal Saturday night surge, which happened in the capital city’s nightlife district and left at least 153 dead and about 82 revelers injured.
“We are sad to deliver such news today, but Lee Jihan has passed away in the crush in Itaewon last night,” his representatives wrote alongside an image of a plain black square. “We would like to express our deepest condolences to his family, who are saddened by the sudden tragic news, also to everyone who loved him.”
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Best known for his 2017 appearance on the second season of South Korea’s reality singing competition Produce 101, Lee was one of 101 contestants competing for one of 11 spots in a new K-pop group. The entertainer then went on to make his acting debut two years later via the popular Today Was Another Nam Hyun Day web drama series.
As BBC explained, the crowd crush occurred when an estimated 100,000 people took to the area’s narrow alleyways of clubs and bars.
The festivities were in celebration of the first maskless Halloween gathering since the onset of the pandemic, with the Washington Post also reporting that South Korea’s Interior and Safety Ministry later determined that the victims were mostly people in their 20s and 30s and that almost all of their identities have been confirmed.
It has since become one of the most deadly mass accidents in modern South Korean history.
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