The incident at a 4Minute concert in Korea that left 16 fans dead will obviously take a long time for those with ties to the tragedy to recover from. One man, the government employee in charge of safety for the concert, took his own life less than 24 hours after the incident took place.
"I am sorry for the dead victims," read a short note left by the man, only identified as "Oh" by The Telegraph. "Please take care of my children."
He was 37.
The original disaster struck during a performance from 4Minute at a makeshift venue in Seongnam, a town outside of Seoul. More than 700 individuals were reportedly in attendance and some crowd members climbed on top of a ventilation grate in order to better see the stage. An image from Getty's Park Young Dae shows that the structure would have blocked the view of spectators watching from that angle. Many scrambled atop the structure, seemingly without protest from security, and the grate fell through, nearly 60 feet to the parking garage below. Sixteen were killed and another 11 were seriously injured. The concert reportedly continued for a few minutes before the act realized something was amiss. Oh was reportedly questioned by police shortly before jumping off of a ten-story tower.
Cube Entertainment, the label in charge of 4Minute, seemed almost callous in its tone when releasing a statement, going out of its way to steer blame away from the group.
"The performance wasn't solely a 4Minute show, but a stage shared by many artists for an event," the company wrote (translated) after offering its sympathies to fans. "During their performance, none of the members or staff were aware of the accident and finished their complete set. It wasn't until they arrived back in Seoul that they heard of the news regarding the accident. We hope the audience wasn't hurt in this accident."
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