At least eight people have died and several people have been hurt after a crowd surge on the opening night of a music festival in Houston, Texas.
According to emergency officials, panic broke out after the crowd began to press towards the front of the stage at rapper, Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival.
Eleven people were taken to hospitals in cardiac arrest and eight died. Some casualties are aged as young as 10 years. Some 50,000 people attended the outdoor event, which has now been cancelled according to reports.
Lina Hidalgo, the county Judge of Harris County, described what had happened as an “extremely tragic”.
“Our hearts are broken. People go to these events looking for a good time, a chance to unwind, to make memories. It’s not the kind of event you go to where you expect to find out about fatalities”.
Linda Hildago
Astroworld in a statement said that their hearts were with the “festival family, especially those we lost and their loved ones”, and they thanked local emergency services for their quick response.
Houston Fire Chief, Samuel Peña describing the incident disclosed that “the crowd began to compress toward the front of the stage, and people began to panic. As the crush began causing injuries to people, the panic grew”.
According to the Houston Chronicle, Travis Scott, who founded the festival, stopped multiple times during his 75-minute performance when he spotted fans in distress near the front of the stage.
The rapper asked security to make sure they were okay and help them out of the crowd. Emergency vehicles, lights and alarms flashing, cut through the crowds several times, the paper reports.
Some videos which have also gone viral on social media show fans jumping on an emergency vehicle in the crowd as the performance continued on stage.
Organizers halted the event when it was apparent that many people were hurt, but the sheer scale of the casualties quickly overwhelmed the existing medical facilities, the fire Chief noted.
Some eyewitnesses told the Chronicle that in some places, people were so crammed together that they started hyperventilating or struggling to leave.
“We were hanging on to each other to avoid getting separated,” said a male concert-goer. “If you let go, you could easily drift apart.”
A female concert-goer told the paper she has never been to a “music festival with so many angry people”.
Some 300 people were treated for injuries such as cuts and bruises. Judge Hidalgo said “many” of those killed at the festival were “tragically young”.
Currently, reunification centre has been set up at the Wyndham Houston Hotel for families who have not heard from loved ones at the festival.
Houston Police Department Chief, Troy Finner said: “Nobody could dream of this. But we’re here, and I think it’s very important that none of us speculate. Nobody has all the answers”.
Earlier on Friday, hundreds of people rushed to the event’s perimeter, knocking down metal detectors and a security screening area to get into the concert, according to reports.
Today, 6th October 2021 was supposed to have been the second and final day of the festival, however, it has been cancelled. Acts scheduled for the festival included rappers Chief Keef, 21 Savage, and Australian rock act Tame Impala.
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