Julia Cho, 23, a first-year tattoo apprentice from Sydney, was in the same group as Rached. She wrote on social media that her sister, who recently moved to Seoul from Sydney, was in hospital fighting for life after getting caught in the “stampede”.

“I may never get my sister back,” she wrote. “People were suffocating, toppling over one another and crushed.”

Cho said local authorities “were not on standby and left innocent people helpless”, adding that she wants answers. An estimated crowd of 100,000 turned out to celebrate the event.

Australian man Nathan Taverniti was also with the group. He posted clips to social media of his friends dancing and laughing in a nightclub before disaster struck.

“This is how our night was supposed to be,” he said. “Fun, happy and free. It ended with two of my friends in hospital and one passed away.”

In a video on his TikTok page, an emotional Taverniti said he was forced to crawl to escape the “slow and agonising crush” before desperately searching for his friend’s body.

“There was no stampede. It was a slow and agonising crush. This crush was not caused by drunk people. It was lack of planning, police force and emergency services. Nobody was willing to help.”

Taverniti said he believed the tragedy could have been avoided if proper planning had been done, adding that organisers and police knew the event was going to attract a large crowd.

Rached had been staying with Taverniti in Seoul in the days before the tragedy, grinning in the background of his videos as the pair went to cafés and got coffee from a convenience store.

She had recently travelled to Mexico City, Bali and the Gili Islands in Indonesia, posting photos of herself reading and drinking cocktails as she lounged by the waterside. In one post, she wrote about the lessons she had learned in her almost-24 years.

“When you go, nothing goes with you,” she said. “So you may as well enjoy your time here.”

In a tribute posted on social media, Rached’s former employer – Electriclime Films executive producer Shahn Devendran – described her as a “kind-hearted” individual.

“This is truly devastating news,” Devendran told this masthead.

“Grace was a fun, friendly, kind-hearted and passionate individual who loved to make films and make people laugh. She will be deeply missed by her many family and friends, as well as her family here at Electriclime films.”

Rached had been a student at the University of Technology Sydney, where she completed a degree in media arts and production, before she joined the film company as an intern. She then moved into a full-time role that required her to travel to various international destinations.

In an online profile, Rached described herself as a Formula 1 fan who enjoyed fantasy films such as Lord of the Rings and Marvel movies.

Friend Silvio Cohiji, who had met Rached at university, said she had an exciting future ahead of her in film.

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“She was an amazing person. A beam of light that would do anything to lift the people around her and had such a huge life ahead of her,” he said.

“She was doing amazing things in her career and travelling a lot.”

Most of the 153 killed on Saturday night were in their 20s or 30s with more than 100 others injured, including 24 who were in a critical condition.

Ninety-seven of the fatalities were women and South Korean media reported up to 26 of the dead were foreign nationals, including from the US, Iran, China, Norway, Thailand and Uzbekistan.