Kim wept as he showed the last messages from his 25-year-old daughter, one of the more than 150 victims of Saturday night’s crowd crush in Seoul.

“I thought I had no worries now because I raised all my children, but I don’t know how to live,” the 58-year-old told local media as he waited in the funeral hall of Ewha woman’s university Mokdong hospital on Sunday.

His daughter had died on his birthday.

As a gift, she had booked and paid for a luxury dinner for her parents at the Skylounge restaurant, and sent a message saying “Have a good time with mum.” They thanked her and said they had had a lovely meal.

Then came her last message: “I’m going to Itaewon to celebrate Halloween.”

Kim’s story is one of many as South Korea mourns Saturday night’s disaster in which more than 150 people, mostly young adults, died when a huge Halloween party gathering crowded into the narrow alleyways of Seoul’s Itaewon district. It was the nation’s worst ever crowd crush event.

Ahn, 54, waited for six hours at Soon Chun Hyang university Seoul hospital before news of her daughter’s death came through. She told how her 20-year-old daughter had been a comfort after the loss of her husband, and had given up going to university and instead chose to live with her mother, helping make ends meet by working part-time at a hospital and restaurant.

As well as scores of locals, foreigners were also among the dead. Twenty-three-year-old Australian Grace Rached was remembered by her family as a talented film producer who was passionate about making a difference.

“We are missing our gorgeous angel Grace, who lit up the room with her infectious smile,” they said in a statement. “Grace always made others feel important and her kindness left an impression on everyone she ever met. Grace always cared about others and she was loved by all.”

Friend Silvio Cohiji, who met the film-maker at university, said she was an “amazing person”. He described her as “A beam of light that would do anything to lift the people around her and had such a huge life ahead of her, was doing amazing things in her career and travelling a lot.”

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