Government right now. cnn s nic robertson from ukraine. do take care. on to new details now about the halloween crowd surge in seoul, south korea, that killed 156 people. according to records they received at least 11 calls from people worried about a possible crush. some were made four hours before this event. let s go live now to cnn s will ripley in seoul. will, good morning. i m curious what authorities are saying about these reports? reporter: you know, polo, they are releasing these transcripts of these phone calls. you have 11 of those calls starting around 6 p.m. and leading up to 10 p.m. the crush officially happened at 10:15. that is the event that led to the horrific and tragic deaths of 156 people. most of them young women.
South korea today grieving the loss of 155 people who died over the weekend after halloween festivities led to a massive crowd rush. at least 149 people have been injured, including 33 seriously. with a nation now in a week-long mourning period, questions are emerging about the government s handling of the incidents and lack of crowd control leading up to the tragedy. paula hancocks is in seoul with the latest. reporter: once the heart of seoul s night life, now the sight of endless grief and loss. south korea was in a period of national mourning. for 155 lives lost in a crowd surge saturday night. that was just obviously waves of people coming in. this is like the middle of it so waves are coming in from both sides. and more people fell and i lost my friend. there s so many people.
Endless grief and loss. south korea is in a period of national mourning. 155 lives were lost in a crowd surge saturday night. there was just waves of people coming in. this is like the middle of town. they re coming in from both sides. people fell. i lost my friend. there were so many people. what do you gonna do with all those people? and i turn around, and i told the crowd, you can t come this way. people are dying. stop green officials admitting there were no guidelines for dealing with the halloween festivities. a street event without a host. they deployed 137 police officers to deal with tens of thousands of partygoers. eyewitnesses said they saw no attempt to control the crowds. it was you versus other people. i just wanted to get out of a.
Actions it might take as this dwindling resource becomes more expensive to come by. we re a very poor community. these people cannot afford a thousand percent increase in their water bills. reporter: the city said they approved a grant to offset the million dollar water bill which is good news for the people in the city. that s the $1 million price tag for a relatively small amount of water. so can california afford to keep compensating drought stricken cities like coalinga as the drought crisis continues? this will not cover farmers and cnn spoke to farmers who are warning that the current high water prices in the state will drive food prices nationwide even higher. rene marsh, cnn, washington. still to come in this hour, calls for safety reforms in south korea after saturday s deadly crowd surge. the changes that the president wants to see ahead. plus, the death toll rises