Daphne Oseña-Paez chronicles her dinner in Itaewon before the deathly stampede: 'We had to get out of there'

TV host and columnist Daphne Oseña-Paez shared that she was in Itaewon, Seoul on the night of Oct. 29, a few hours short of the deadly Halloween stampede that happened in the city and killed over 150 people. 

In a series of Instagram Stories chronicling the night, Oseña-Paez shared that she was in the area for art visits before she and her husband Patrick and some friends decided to eat dinner there.

"It's Halloween season. We've seen Halloween in Asian mega-cities before. Last night started out the same... fun and colorful," she began.

She followed it up with more photos of Itaewon as early as 7:14 p.m. The street can be seen with some space for cars and pedestrians, as it slowly filled up with more people by 7:30 p.m.

Oseña-Paez then shared a photo of the secluded restaurant they ate in. They were supposed to go home early but couldn't hail a cab from the annual Halloween event, which was halted amid the pandemic, so they decided to take a stroll in the area.

Upon leaving the district, the crowd continued to get thicker, but by 9:10 p.m., Daphne still said that there wasn't a "crazy mood" in the area that still had senior citizens and children roaming around.

There were even street performers around the area. One, in particular, caught her eye for performing the BTS song Spring Day, which revolves around the theme of loss and grief.

"I was so moved," Daphne shared. "This song was about the victims of the ferry that sank killing hundreds of mostly high school students."

"Less than an hour later, another tragedy was about to happen."

Many BTS fans believe that Spring Day is inspired by the Sewol Ferry Tragedy that happened in 2014, wherein a ferry sailing from Incheon to Jeju Island sank, killing nearly 304 people, mostly young students.

At 9:30 p.m., Oseña-Paez and her company were headed to Itaewon station to finally get home. Her photos continue to show the growing crowd, as she passed by an alleyway that bore resemblance to where the crowd got stuck sometime later.

By 9:40 p.m., they had managed to squeeze through the crowd and get to the station, but there were still crowds of people headed to the venue.

Upon walking back, Oseña-Paez and her husband knew that they had to "get out of there" as soon as they can, as they had been trying to leave the event for an hour now.

"We were in the open area, main avenue," she wrote. "We had been trying to get out of Itaweon for an hour. And we were relieved the station was nearby. But the scene there was scary too."

"There were just so many people last night," Daphne concluded with a video of them leaving the station and being met with more people.

In a Facebook and YouTube Live shortly after her Instagram update, Daphne shared that she learned of the news the following day when friends and family reached out to ask if she was safe.

She added that despite the event being dubbed a party, the millennial and Gen Z crowd was "relatively quiet."

"Sanay tayo sa loud parties sa Philippines, 'di ba? But it seemed like it was okay. People were just happy to be out, it wasn't wild," she explained. "It wasn't like there was music blaring or people were going crazy, they were just walking around and taking selfies and posing."