AUBURN, Calif. — Tens of thousands of people flooded the Itaewon district of Seoul, South Korea Saturday night for Halloween fun, but the event quickly turned tragic when hundreds became trapped among the sea of people.
At least 156 people were fatally crushed after the narrow, sloping alleys of the district were clogged with people.
English teacher and Auburn native Savannah Widmann was one of the attendees who survived that night.
"I just remember like, being under all these layers of people and thinking, ‘I am not dying. I am not doing this to my family. I am going home. I will see my family again. I need to be calm and breathe'," she told ABC News.
"It's like very, very slow suffocating water"
Widmann said she wasn't planning on staying long with friends on the streets of Seoul that night, but they found themselves pushing through a crowd of people when trying to leave.
When she started hearing people scream, that's when Widmann said she told her friends they needed to leave as soon as possible. She even described biting people who were shoving elbows in her face and blocking her airways.
"You (couldn't) move, and then all of a sudden, I feel my feet start to slip," she told ABC News. "I could feel people in front of me tilting forward."
But Widmann said she was lucky because she was on her back with nothing pressing against her chest. She also said the person who was a layer above her did his best not to crush her, and Widmann believes it's one of the reasons she is alive today.
Almost half-an-hour passed with Widmann trapped in the crowd before she said her friend pulled her out and into a bar that was right along the road.
Along with the numerous killed, dozens more were injured.
Widmann said she was in the Intensive Care Unit for about two days, but is ready to go back home to Auburn when her family flies into South Korea to pick her up.
"My mom's about to board a plane to be over here. My dad's getting my room set up at home so it'll be comfortable for me. Everybody in my family has reached out to me saying, 'We're here with you. We may not be physically there, but as soon as you get back, you're never allowed to travel again'," Widmann told ABC News. "I've been banned from traveling for a while."
WATCH MORE:
