News Wrap: South Korea mourns victims of Seoul crowd crush

John Yang:

Good evening. There is grieving and confusion in South Korea tonight after a fatal crowd crush in downtown Seoul, Saturday evening. On Twitter, President Biden said at least two Americans are among the dead. We begin with a look at how a vibrant Halloween celebration ended in tragedy.

Today, Seoul's Itaewon District normally a hub for revelry was a memorial site. Mourners perform funeral rites but 153 people killed in a Saturday night crushed, 133 more were injured. The tragedy unfolded during Halloween celebrations in a tiny overcrowded alleyway. Eyewitnesses reported people pushing which began the stampede.

Janelle Story, Eyewitness:

There was panic coming towards us. Some shouts of fear but also confusion. We didn't know really what was happening to us.

John Yang:

At a community center, people waited for news of missing loved ones. Nathan Taverniti, said he got separated from his friends in the crush.

Nathan Taverniti, Eyewitness:

There's so many people (inaudible). And I like turned around and I told the crowd, come this way. People are dying.

John Yang:

Today, the alleyway was littered with remnants of the festivities. South Korean President, Yoon Suk-yeol toured the site and announced a week-long period of mourning. He says the government will thoroughly investigate South Korea's deadliest disaster in a decade.

And today's other headlines, Somalia's President confirms that at least 100 people were killed and 300 more injured and yesterday's two suicide blasts in the capital Mogadishu. The Al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist group al-Shabaab now has claimed responsibility for the attack. It's the deadliest terror attack of the country since two truck bombs killed nearly 600 people in 2017.

And Indian government officials say at least 80 people have died and many more are unaccounted for after a cable suspension bridge collapsed into a river in western India. Video shows people clinging on to the dangling bridge and others swimming to safety. The bridge was built in the 19th Century and adjust reopen this week after renovations. Polls have closed in Brazil in the runoff presidential election between the far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and the leftist former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva known to the people as Lula.

Bolsonaro has maligned democratic institutions and weaken environmental protections for the Amazon forest. While da Silva was once in prison for corruption. Most opinion polls give da Silva the lead but those margins have tightened in recent weeks.

And in Lebanon today, President Michel Aoun left office one day before the end of his term. That leaves the country with no leader. Aoun presided over Lebanon's ongoing financial meltdown but ended his presidency with a breakthrough agreement with Israel to share energy resources in the Mediterranean Sea.

Still to come on "PBS News Weekend," we get an update on the ongoing baby formula shortage and a nonprofit bringing voter registration to the exam room.