to all of you watching us here in the united states, canada, and around the world. i m kim bruin hube letter ahead on cnn newsroom, south korea is in mourning right now. more than 150 people in seoul killed in a crowd surge celebrating halloween. a week and a half to u.s. midterm elections, and early ballots are coming in by the millions. one battleground state, see where else each party s heavy hitters are campaigning. the white house accuses russia of weaponizing food. a grain deal to feed much of africa and the middle east now in jeopardy. we re live in kyiv and johannesburg with the fallout. south korea has declared a national day of mourning of a of ap aft chaotic crowd surge claimed the lives of at least 151 people. thousands of partygoers had gathered for a celebration, but the turn ute so large and the space so small, many people got crushed in the middle of the crowd. here s how one witness described the scene. i saw the people going to the left side. i act
watching us here in the united states and around the world. ahead on cnn newsroom i turned around and i told the crowd come this way. people are dying. tragedy strikes a halloween celebration in south korea. more than 150 people have been killed. cnn is live in seoul on the search for answers into what happened. plus the u.s. is now nine days away from the midterm elections and voters have been turning out in record numbers. we ll have a report from one key state. and the white house is accusing the kremlin of weaponizing food as russia withdraws from a key grain deal with ukraine. we ll have reaction. south korea s president is offering support and condolences to families who have lost loved ones in chaotic crowd surge. images of the tragedy have been pouring in and we have to warn you, they can be very hard to watch. you will zeros of bodies see rows of bodies and now at least 153 have died including 24 nationals, some 82 have also been injured, among them at leas
normal weekend is always packed. there are bars, restaurants, night clubs. this is the heart of the entertainment district here. and it is always somewhere that people not just in south korea but around the world as well congregate to party. it is known as an area where people come specifically for halloween. but the shear number of people that came, tens of thousands at least we re being told by officials meant that this turned deadly. yeah, just shocking and heartbreaking. paula hancocks, thanks so much. earlier i talked about the tragedy in seoul with a crowd security analyst keith still and he explained the physics behind the deadly crush. here he is. once the density, the packing density, the number of people per square meter increases above six or seven, there is a high risk of shockwaves, progressive
suffering the heartbreak of losing loved ones. reporter: it is a very somber atmosphere here in the heart of seoul s entertainment district of itaewon. people have been coming to lay flowers to show their respects. kim? all right, just so tragic. paula hancocks live in seoul, thanks so much. i want to discuss this a bit more with keith still, analyst of crowd safety and risk. he joins us this hour from england. thanks so much for being here with us. so why do you think this was so deadly. i mean, talk to me about the physics of what made this such a deadly event. certainly. i mean, the analogy here is, like a tachometer in a car. when you rev the engine in the red, there s a high chance of engine failure. same with crowd density. once the density, the packing density, the number of people per square meter increases above six or seven, there s a high