Eight people were killed and many more injured on Friday after fans surged toward the stage during a music festival in Houston, Texas, sparking a “panic,” officials said.
Authorities declared a “mass casualty incident” at the Astroworld music festival, with the deaths and injuries happening during a Travis Scott concert.
Ambulances took 17 people to the hospital, with at least 11 suffering from cardiac arrest, Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña said during a press conference.
A field hospital was created with at least 300 getting checked at the festival for injuries.
“The crowd began to compress towards the front of the stage, and that caused some panic, and it started causing some injuries,” Peña said. “People began to fall out, become unconscious, and it created additional panic.”
The eight who died have not been identified and it is not clear how exactly they died.
Scott was seen several times during his performance stopping to tell his security that people needed help in the crowd, video seen by Reuters showed.
“It happened all at once. It seemed like it just happened … over the course of just a few minutes,” Houston Police Executive Assistant Chief Larry Satterwhite said. “Suddenly we had several people down on the ground, experiencing some type of cardiac arrest or some type of medical episode.”
Peña said there were about 50,000 in the crowd, with events for the Astroworld festival on Saturday canceled due to the incident.
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Eight dead after fans surge toward stage during Travis Scott concert at Houston music festival https://t.co/ytOEuECz1g pic.twitter.com/gqnGTQFpFd
— The Hill (@thehill) November 6, 2021
A number of venues offer a “festival” setup where the ticket doesn’t give the patron an assigned seat. Instead, it’s standing room only and people fight to get a spot close to the stage. I went to one concert like that years ago. Never again. Not only did I end up behind a tall man and I couldn’t see the stage, but there were people trying to squeeze into the small space between the guy in front and me. One kid actually tried to stand on my feet. I left my concertgoing companion and went to the concession stand area where I “heard” the rest of the show. This “festival” setup is dangerous and should be outlawed.
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