The organisers of a music festival in Texas where at least eight people were killed, including a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old, were facing a crimininal investigation last night.
About 300 concertgoers were treated at the scene and 25 taken to hospital after a crush at the sold-out Astroworld festival in Houston on Friday night. A child aged ten was among those hurt.
The disaster unfolded at NRG Park at 9.15pm during a headline set by the Grammy-nominated rapper Travis Scott, the festival’s founder and the partner of the reality star Kylie Jenner.
Emergency services said some concertgoers pushed toward the front, sending panic through the crowd of 50,000. Some fans were squeezed and fell unconscious.
“The crowd began to compress towards the front of the stage,” Samuel Peña, the Houston fire chief, said. “People began to fall out, become unconscious, and it created additional panic. We had scores of individuals that were injured.”
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The dead ranged in age between 14 and 27. Lina Hidalgo, the county judge of Harris County, described some of the victims as “tragically young”. She added: “Our hearts are broken. People go to these events looking for a good time, a chance to unwind, to make memories.”
Scott said he was “absolutely devastated”. He wrote on Twitter: “My prayers go out to the families and all those impacted by what happened. Houston police department has my total support as they continue to look into the tragic loss of life.”
Graphic footage shows paramedics attempting to give CPR to people lying on the ground, while others are wheeled out on stretchers.
One audience member, Seanna Faith, said: “Within the first 30 seconds of the first song, people began to drown — in other people. The rush of people became tighter and tighter. Breathing became something only a few were capable of. The rest were crushed or unable to breathe in the thick, hot air.”
She saw people around her being “sucked down” and trampled. “It was like watching a Jenga tower topple ... You could not guess from which direction the shove of hundreds of people would come next. You were at the mercy of the wave.”
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It is not yet clear what caused the disaster, although Houston’s police chief said a member of the security team appeared to have passed out after being injected in the neck by a member of the audience.
An investigation is likely to focus on security and safety protocols. There were reports fans had broken in after scaling fences, leading to concerns that the venue was too full.
In some videos posted on social media people were heard chanting, “Stop the show,” as the crowd began to compress. Scott was reported to have stopped several times during his 75-minute performance when he spotted fans in distress near the front. He said: “Security, somebody help real quick.”
Madeline Eskins, an intensive care unit nurse who was at the festival, said: “People were begging the crew around us to stop the concert and they wouldn’t.” She said she had attended the festival before but this year it was “completely different”.
She passed out in the crush: “People were pushing up against me so much that I couldn’t breathe,” she said. She escaped after her partner “got people to crowdsurf her unconscious body” to a security guard over the boundary. She later helped to perform CPR on others who were injured.
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Event promoters had arranged medical units at the festival but were quickly overwhelmed, the fire department said.
Billy Nasser, who posted video of the event online, said he saw several people die. “I kept thinking they were going to stop the music,” he wrote. “I was literally dragging dead bodies out. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Larry Satterwhite, the executive assistant chief of Houston police, was near the front when people started collapsing. “We immediately started doing CPR, and moving people right then, and that’s when I went and met the promoters, and Live Nation, and they agreed to end early.”
Addressing reports of people breaking through barricades, he said: “A lot of times, kids don’t make the best decisions, because they’re young and amped up. I just think it was so many people, and passion, to see this entertainer.”
Astroworld is a two-day music festival. Its founder, Scott, a Houston native, is known for high-octane performances, and during his opening-night set he brought out the rapper Drake as a surprise guest. The second day of the festival was cancelled.
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Live Nation, the event’s organiser, said last night it was “heartbroken for those lost and impacted at Astroworld last night”.
