There's nothing wrong with following celebrities, but some people take things too far. Especially the fans of Korean stars. They have been behaving badly. For example, there was an accident in South Korea last month that killed 16 people and seriously injured many others.
A Korean group was giving an outdoor concert. Some fans climbed up to a vent to get a better view of their idols. Unfortunately, the vent couldn't take their weight. It collapsed and some people fell nearly 20 metres to the ground.
It shows the crazy things that fans can do. They neglected their own safety just to get a closer look at their idols.
I'm not saying there is anything wrong with chasing stars, but those fans were definitely wrong. I will always put my safety first. I appeal to all fans that we should be sensible, as safety should be our top priority.
Cheung Suet-wai, STFA Tam Pak Yu College
From the Editor
Thank you for your letter, Suet-wai. The vent collapse was an absolute tragedy and it is not the first or last of these kinds of incidents. Whenever large crowds of people gather, there is always a danger of something going wrong. It doesn't matter that it was for a concert, really. Often you see people killed in stampedes at religious festivals or big sales where people queue for hours; there was that disaster in Britain in 1989 where 96 football fans were killed and 766 others injured because police had let too many fans into the stadium.
While it is everyone's responsibility to mind their own safety, when huge crowds are expected, specially-trained crowd management experts should make sure that things are safe. The way that a crowd acts is very different from the way people would act in smaller groups. So the next time you're at a concert, show some respect for the poor security guys at the front. They are there for your own safety.
Susan, Editor