Eight people were killed and hundreds more were injured at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival in Houston on Friday night after a large crowd stormed to the front of the stage.
The deceased included two children, aged 14 and 16, respectively. Among the other victims were two 21 year olds, two 23 year olds, and a 27 year old. The age of the eighth victim has not been determined.
According to Houston’s mayor, Sylvester Turner, 25 people were transported by ambulance to local hospitals. As of Saturday afternoon, 13 people are still hospitalized, including five who are under the age of 18. Over 300 people were treated at a “field hospital” set up at the festival.
“The crowd began to compress towards the front of the stage, and that caused some panic, and it started causing some injuries,” Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña told reporters. “People began to fall out, become unconscious, and it created additional panic.”
“Suddenly we had several people down on the ground, experiencing some type of cardiac arrest or some type of medical episode,” Houston Police Executive Assistant Chief Larry Satterwhite explained. “And so we immediately started doing CPR, and moving people right then, and that’s when I went and met with the promoters, and Live Nation, and they agreed to end early in the interest of public safety.”
Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said an investigation has been launched to determine what caused the surge. “I’m sending investigators to the hospitals because we just don’t know,” Chief Finner told reports. “We’re going to do an investigation and find out, because it’s not fair to producers, to anybody else involved, until we determine what happened, what caused the surge.”
