A crowd surge on the opening night of a music festival in Houston, Texas, killed at least eight people and injured dozens more according to the BBC.
Emergency officials reported that a panic broke out when 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, eight of whom died. Some of the victims are as young as ten years old.
The event, which has now been cancelled, was attended by approximately 50,000 people.
Lina Hidalgo, the county judge of Harris County, described what had happened as an “extremely tragic night”.
“Our hearts are broken,” she said. “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.”
Rapper Travis Scott stopped performing when he saw fans in distress
The incident began around 21:15 on Friday (02:15 GMT Saturday), Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña said.
“The crowd began to compress toward the front of the stage, and people began to panic,” he told reporters.
As the crush began causing injuries to people, the panic grew, the official added.
Image source: https://www.revolt.tv
