At least eight people were killed after fans attending a Houston music festival surged toward the stage during a performance by rapper Travis Scott, triggering panic in the crowd of tens of thousands, authorities said.
The chaos unfolded Friday evening at Astroworld, a sold-out, two-day event at the NRG Park stadium. An estimated 50,000 people were in attendance.
"The crowd began to compress towards the front of the stage, and that caused some panic, and it started causing some injuries," Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña told a news conference.
"People began to fall out, become unconscious, and it created additional panic."
17 taken to hospital
Seventeen people were taken to hospital, including 11 who were in cardiac arrest, Peña said, and "scores of individuals" were injured.
Event organizers had arranged for medical units to be at the festival. But once the crowd surge began, those teams were "quickly overwhelmed," the fire chief said.
In a video posted to social media, Scott could be seen stopping the concert at one point and asking for aid for someone in the audience: "Security, somebody help real quick."
Houston police executive assistant chief Larry Satterwhite, who was near the front of the crowd, said the surge "happened all at once."
If families have not heard from a loved one that attended this evenings Astroworld festival, a reunification center has been established at 8686 Kirby (Wyndam Hotel). A hotline has not been established at the moment <a href="https://twitter.com/FireChiefofHFD?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FireChiefofHFD</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/houstonpolice?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@houstonpolice</a>
—@HoustonFire
UPDATE AS OF 0745 am: If you have not been able to contact your loved one who attended <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ASTROWORLDFest?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ASTROWORLDFest</a> please call 3-1-1 or 713-837-0311 or go to the reunification center at 8686 Kirby Dr, Houston, TX 77054.
—@HoustonOEM
"Suddenly we had several people down on the ground, experiencing some type of cardiac arrest or some type of medical episode," Satterwhite said. "And so we immediately started doing CPR and moving people right then."
Satterwhite said he quickly met with promoters, who agreed to end the event "in the interest of public safety."
Organizers and Scott were both co-operating with police.
A search for answers
Houston police Chief Troy Finner called for calm and urged people not to jump to conclusions as to what caused the surge.
"I think it's very important that none of us speculate. Nobody has all the answers tonight," Finner said.
"We're going to do an investigation and find out because it's not fair to the producers, to anybody else involved, until we determine what happened," he said.
It was not clear whether all eight who died were among the 17 people who were taken to hospitals. Many people were also treated at the scene, where a field hospital had been set up. About 300 people were examined at that site throughout the day, the fire chief said.
Authorities did not immediately know the causes of death, and the dead were not immediately identified. A medical examiner planned to investigate.
Astroworld was scheduled to take place Friday and Saturday in Houston. Drake was among the performers on Friday. Saturday's performances have been cancelled.
Scott, one of music's biggest young stars, released two new songs earlier Friday, Mafia and Escape Plan. The 29-year-old Houston native has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards. He has a three-year-old daughter with Kylie Jenner, who announced in September that she's pregnant with their second child.
A representative for Scott did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Associated Press.
Officials set up a reunification centre at a hotel for family members who had not been able to reach relatives at the event. Authorities sought to connect families with festival-goers who were taken to the hospital, "some as young as 10" years old, said Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the county's top elected official.
Scott founded Astroworld Festival in 2018, and it has taken place at the former site of Six Flags Astroworld each year since, except in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
At least 8 dead at Astroworld music festival in Houston - CBC.ca
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