Crowd surge kills at least 8 at Houston music festival

By Juan A. Lozano

HOUSTON — Fans attending a Houston euphony festival surged toward the signifier during a show by rapper Travis Scott, triggering panic successful the assemblage of tens of thousands. At slightest 8 radical were killed and galore much hurt, authorities said.

The chaos unfolded Friday evening astatine Astroworld, a sold-out, two-day lawsuit astatine the NRG Park stadium. An estimated 50,000 radical were successful attendance. It was not wide what acceptable the assemblage successful motion.

“The assemblage began to compress towards the beforehand of the stage, and that caused immoderate panic, and it started causing immoderate injuries,” Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña told a quality conference. “People began to autumn out, go unconscious, and it created further panic.”

Seventeen radical were taken to hospitals, including 11 who were successful cardiac arrest, Peña said, and “scores of individuals” were injured.

Witnesses reported tons of pushing and shoving during the performances starring up to Scott’s set.

When Scott took the stage, the assemblage seemed to unreserved to the front, trying to get person to the stage, said Nick Johnson, a precocious schoolhouse elder from the Houston suburb of Friendswood who was astatine the performance with friends.

“It conscionable got worse and worse. Everyone was similar you conscionable can’t breathe,” said Johnson, who was adjacent the beforehand of the signifier successful the mediate portion of the crowd.

Johnson said fans started to crush each other, and radical started screaming. He said it felt similar 100 degrees successful the crowd, which was truthful heavy that helium and his friends could not move.

“Everyone was passing retired astir you, and everyone was trying to assistance each other. But you conscionable couldn’t move. You couldn’t bash anything. You can’t adjacent prime your arms up,” Johnson said.

Scott seemed to beryllium alert that thing was going connected successful the crowd, but helium mightiness not person understood the severity of the situation, Johnson said.

In a video posted to societal media, Scott could beryllium seen stopping the performance astatine 1 constituent and asking for assistance for idiosyncratic successful the audience: “Security, idiosyncratic assistance existent quick.”

In a tweet posted Saturday, Scott said helium was “absolutely devastated by what took spot past night.” He pledged to enactment “together with the Houston assemblage to heal and enactment the families successful need.”

Houston Police Executive Assistant Chief Larry Satterwhite, who was adjacent the beforehand of the crowd, said the surge “happened each astatine once.”

“Suddenly we had respective radical down connected the ground, experiencing immoderate benignant of cardiac apprehension oregon immoderate benignant of aesculapian episode,” Satterwhite said. “And truthful we instantly started doing CPR and moving radical close then.”

Satterwhite said helium rapidly met with promoters, who agreed to extremity the lawsuit “in the involvement of nationalist safety.”

Amy Harris, a freelance lensman for The Associated Press, described an “aggressive” assemblage ambiance passim the time due to the fact that of the mode fans were behaving — pushing and rushing the signifier barricades and prohibited VIP and admittance areas.

“It was decidedly the astir chaotic festival situation that I’ve been in,” Harris said. “I felt uneasy each day.”

At 1 point, she got trapped down a barricade portion photographing performer Don Toliver due to the fact that astir 300 fans rushed the area. They ended up down the information barricade with her.

“I was scared,” she said.

Harris said she encountered a akin country for the main enactment astatine a antithetic stage. She near the media pit aft 3 songs due to the fact that of the pandemonium, which included radical being pulled implicit the information barricade to person aesculapian attention.

Houston Police Chief Troy Finner urged radical not to leap to conclusions astir what caused the surge.

“I deliberation it’s precise important that nary of america speculate. Nobody has each the answers tonight,” Finner said.

“We’re going to bash an probe and find retired due to the fact that it’s not just to the producers, to anybody other involved, until we find what happened,” helium said.

Event organizers had arranged for aesculapian teams to beryllium astatine the festival. But erstwhile the assemblage surge began, those teams were “quickly overwhelmed,” the occurrence main said.

A tract infirmary astatine the country examined astir 300 radical passim the day, helium said.

Authorities did not instantly cognize the causes of death, and the dormant were not instantly identified. A aesculapian examiner planned to investigate.

Scott, 1 of music’s biggest young stars, released 2 caller songs earlier Friday, “Mafia” and “Escape Plan.” The 29-year-old Houston autochthonal has been nominated for 8 Grammy Awards. He has a 3-year-old girl with Kylie Jenner, who announced successful September that she’s large with their 2nd child.

Drake joined Scott on-stage astatine the performance — which was livestreamed by Apple Music — and posted photos to Instagram aft the performance.

Officials acceptable up a reunification halfway astatine a edifice for household members who had not been capable to scope relatives astatine the event. Authorities sought to link families with fans who were taken to the hospital, “some arsenic young arsenic 10” years old, said Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the county’s apical elected official.

Scott founded the Astroworld Festival successful 2018, and it has taken spot astatine the erstwhile tract of Six Flags AstroWorld each twelvemonth since, but for 2020 due to the fact that of the coronavirus pandemic.

The deaths called to caput a 1979 performance by The Who wherever 11 radical died and astir 2 twelve were injured arsenic thousands of fans tried to get into Cincinnati’s Riverfront Coliseum.

Other euphony events that resulted successful fatalities successful caller years see the Las Vegas shooting massacre successful 2017, erstwhile a gunman perched successful a edifice model killed 58 radical astatine the Route 91 Harvest Festival, the alleged Ghost Ship occurrence successful 2016 that killed 36 radical successful a California warehouse during a creation enactment and a 2003 nightclub occurrence that killed 100 radical successful Rhode Island.

Associated Press writers David Sharp successful Portland, Maine, and Desiree Seals successful Atlanta contributed to this report.