newsroom. i m jim acosta in washington. we re following breaking news out of south korea. a horrific chain of event and a fast rising death toll in seoul. 146 people are confirmed dead. this happened a t a halloween festival. the video is graphic. it s a chaotic scene on the streets of seoul as people perform cpr. the fire department chief says the cause is presumed to be a huge controllable crush of people. we do not know what led to that crush of people. the white house, at this hour, is weighing in. jake sullivan wrote the reports out of seoul are heartbreaking. we are thinking thof those who lost loved one. the united states stands ready to provide the republic of career with any support it needs. let s get to will ripley who has been covered this. what more are you learning about what happened? reporter: the number of people and families affected by this continues to grow. you re talk about 146 people, at least killed. that s a death toll that has almost tripled since
phone call that started downthis story five years ago. in 2017, i was at any desk at cnn center when the phone at the desk rang. on the phone was this woman who said not only should james brown s death be investigating but she had evidence that could possibly prove it. it came from an unlikely source. this woman was, at the time, the singer, the main featured singer for the carson and barnes traveling circus. my first question is how could she know this. it s so unusual, so out there. could it be true? i kind of put her off for a while. she kept calling, texting. my editor said maybe see what she has. she did have quite a lot of evidence.
moment of impact, what do you remember? i was sitting at the desk in my office, and it just started to shake. not a violent shaking, but a very strange vibration. at that moment, the phone that was hanging on the bulkhead next to my desk rang. it was the third mate. he said, we re in trouble and i took off. hazelwood s ship had hit a two-mile underwater ridge, blye wreath. were alarms going off? when i got to the bridge, they were going off, yes. loud bells, sirens. when you heard those alarms, were you thinking, oh, my god? well, i had a pretty good idea we had run aground. i threw up in the toilet that was jet stream to the bridge when i got up there. why did you throw up? i felt like i had been kicked
disaster. it was just after midnight. take me to that moment, the moment of impact, what do you remember? i was sitting at the desk in my office, and it just started to shake. not a violent shaking, but a very strange vibration. at that moment, the phone that was hanging on the bulkhead next to my desk rang. it was the third mate. he said, we re in trouble and i took off. hazelwood s ship had hit a two-mile underwater ridge, bligh wreath. were alarms going off? when i got to the bridge, they were going off, yes. loud bells, sirens. when you heard those alarms, were you thinking, oh, my god? well, i had a pretty good idea we had run aground.