At least eight people have died and several have been injured after mass chaos at the Astroworld Festival in Houston Friday night.
The Houston Fire Department confirmed the deaths and said several were taken to hospital for injuries. There were reports earlier in the day of concert-goers rushing into the doors and knocking down metal detectors during the entry times. Several clips on social media showed huge crowds rushing towards the stage.
They smoked VIP #Astroworld pic.twitter.com/AYvjKT8VBY
— BMoore (@BrennonMoore34) November 5, 2021
100,000 tickets to Travis Scott’s festival sold out within an hour of going on sale back in May. Fire Chief Samuel Pena confirmed that about two dozen people were rushed to Houston hospitals and at least 11 of them had CPR in progress when they were transported.
According to Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, some of the victims were as young as 10 years old. Work to identify the victims was on at the time of KHOU’s report and families are asked to go to the Wyndham Hotel at 8686 Kirby if their loved ones are missing.
“We got to grieve for these families right now,” Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said.” Everybody in our city pray for these families and we got to get through it.” The chaos began when the crowd rushed toward the stage around 9:15 p.m. and people started passing out because they couldn’t breathe. A chunk of the crowd panicked as they tried to help those who were unconscious. Soon after, emergency crews were overwhelmed with the amount of people who needed assistance and a mass casualty incident was declared.
Developing situation as fire trucks and ambulances responding to incident at Astroworld Festival at @nrgpark @KHOU pic.twitter.com/1FVwbKVl2f
— Zack Tawatari (@zacktKHOU) November 6, 2021
The Astroworld Festival for the rest of the weekend has been canceled. Earlier in the night, Travis brought out Drake as a special guest and performed several of their hits together.
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