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Eight killed and hundreds injured after crowd surge at Astroworld Festival in Texas
The Daily Mail reported according to American officials, eight people are dead and 'hundreds' more injured during a crush and stampede on the opening night of rapper Travis Scott's sold-out Astroworld Festival in Texas on Friday night.
Houston Fire Chief Samuel Pena told reporters the compression of the crowd toward the stage occurred while Scott was performing at the third annual music festival at NRG Park in Houston.
About two dozen people were rushed to hospitals, and CPR was being performed on at least 11 of them when they were taken, officials confirmed. Those injured are said to include children 'as young as 10'.
Harrowing footage on social media shows a distressing scene as paramedics perform CPR on several people on the floor within the crowd as a performance continues on the stage in Houston.
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The show was called off shortly after several people began suffering injuries, and the second day of the event has been cancelled.
It remains unclear what caused the injuries and how many people were injured as of early Saturday morning, but authorities told FOX 26 that a lot of people are in need of medical attention on the scene.
They said they are classifying it as a 'level 2' incident due to the number of calls they are receiving.
The Houston Fire Department earlier said in a tweet that it was on scene near NRG park after receiving reports of multiple civilian injuries.
'We had at least eight confirmed fatalities tonight and scores of individuals that were injured,' Mr Pena said, adding the cause of death was unknown following a mass casualty event.
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Astroworld is rapper Travis Scott's music festival and is being attended by a host of celebrities, including Kylie Jenner and Kendall Jenner.
Tickets sold for $180 for general admission and $490 for 'stargazer' tickets.
The event's 100,000 tickets sold out within an hour of going on sale back in May, ABC 13 reported, after it was canceled during the pandemic last year.
Multiple fans were trampled as hundreds rushed the event's perimeter on Friday afternoon. Once inside, people began climbing onto portable loos as security tried and contain the crowd.
An ABC News reporter from Houston's local affiliate, Mycah Hatfield, had reported via Twitter that chaos ensued during day one of the festival as soon as doors opened at 2 p.m.
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'A stampede burst through the gates. Hundreds of people destroyed the VIP security entrance, bypassing the checkpoint. People were trampled. Some were detained,' she wrote of the scene at NRG Park.
One person who was detained by security told ABC13: 'I just really wanted to be inside the festival so bad.'
Source: dailymail
