World News
8 people dead, many hospitalized due to crowd surge at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival
Popular American rapper Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival has been cancelled after at least eight people died, many others sustained various degrees of injuries and have been hospitalized.
According to reports, the event which was initially meant to be fun turned fatal following a crowd surge.
The BBC reported emergency service officials as saying Panic broke out after the crowd began to press towards the front of the stage on the opening night of the music festival in Houston, Texas.
It is further reported that eleven people were taken to hospitals in cardiac arrest aside from the eight deaths recorded.
Children as young as 10 years were part of the casualties at the outdoor event that was attended by 50,000 people.
The BBC reported Lina Hidalgo, the county judge of Harris County as having expressed regret about the incident, describing it as an “extremely tragic night”.
“Our hearts are broken. 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.”
Reports say the fatalities occurred whilst Travis was performing on his Utopia Mountain stage around 21:15pm.
An estimated 300 injuries were recorded at the annual event which was held in Houstonâs NRG Park.
Houston’s Fire Chief, Samuel Pena said in a statement:
âThe crowd began to compress towards the front of the stage, and that caused some panic, and it started causing some injuries.â
âPeople began to fall out, become unconscious, and it created additional panic.
âWe have at least eight confirmed fatalities tonight⊠and we had scores of individuals who were injured here at this event.”
The Rapper took to social media to react to the news.
— TRAVIS SCOTT (@trvisXX) November 6, 2021
