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| ▲ This undated photo, provided by the Seoul city government on Oct. 7, 2023, shows the Seoul International Fireworks Festival. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
(LEAD) Seoul-fireworks festival
(LEAD) Large-scale fireworks festival takes place in Seoul amid strong safety measures
(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead as event begins; UPDATES paras 2-5)
SEOUL, Oct. 7 (Yonhap) -- A large-scale international fireworks festival took place in Seoul on Saturday, drawing a crowd of about 1 million people as the city government beefed up measures to ensure public safety, officials said.
Under the theme "Lights of Tomorrow," the 2023 Seoul International Fireworks Festival, organized by Hanwha Group, was held at the Han River Park in Yeouido.
The annual event featured three teams from South Korea, China and Poland, and around 400 drones were mobilized for a massive fireworks display, Hanwha officials said.
This year's event deployed the largest number of barges yet for the biggest-ever international fireworks event, they added.
The event was livestreamed on its official YouTube channel, Hanwha TV, as well as on its exclusive app, Orange Play.
Considering the huge crowd, the Seoul municipal government established a comprehensive safety headquarters at the event venue and increased personnel in charge of crowd control and other safety steps by 26 percent compared with last year.
Emergency medical arrangements have been in place, and parts of the roads on Yeouido have been completely blocked from 2 p.m. through 11 p.m.
Hanwha said it also dispatched some 3,400 officials and volunteer workers to the venue, some 20 percent larger from a year earlier, and installed more surveillance cameras for enhanced monitoring of large crowds.
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