At least eight people died and several others were injured due to a crowd surge at rapper Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival in Houston on Friday. Officials in Houston, Texas said that a mass casualty incident took place while the rapper was performing on stage and the cause of death of the eight people will be known only after an investigation. The show was attended by over 50,000 people.
Addressing a press conference, Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña told reporters, “The crowd began to compress towards the front of the stage, and that caused some panic, and it started causing some injuries. People began to fall out, become unconscious, and it created additional panic”.
According to a report by Variety, the Fire Chief also gave a detailed timeline of the tragedy. When the crowd started to surge toward the stage at 9 p.m., Travis Scott repeatedly paused his performance to help out his fans. Several members of the fire department were sent into the crowd to help out the injured.
Then at 9:38 p.m., a mass casualty was triggered and CPR was administered to several fans who became unconscious.
Around 17 people were rushed to the hospital out of which 11 were in cardiac arrest. More than 300 people were treated for minor injuries on the site of the tragedy.
Several people posted videos of the incident on social media and accused the rapper of continuing to perform even as people were telling him to stop.
In a statement, the festival extended their condolences to the attendees who lost their lives and stated that they will support and cooperate with the local authorities.
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Similarly, Travis Scott took to his social media to issue a statement. He wrote, “I’m absolutely devasted by what took place last night. My prayers go out to the families and all those impacted by what happened at the Astroworld festival. Houston PD has my total support as they look into the tragic loss of life.”
The Astroworld Festival is a two-day event founded by Scott in 2018. Due to the incident, the rest of the event was cancelled.