Mass Casualty Accident at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Leaves Eight People Dead

Mass Casualty Accident at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Leaves Eight People Dead

“Scores more injured” after crowd surge, Houston authorities rummage through video to make sense of festival disaster.
PHOTO CREDIT:

At least eight people have died at Travis Scott’s sold-out Astroworld festival this weekend in Houston with “scores more injured” according to Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña. Officials described the festival’s attendance of 50,000 as a “crowd surge” that began pushing forward to the stage during Travis Scott’s performance around 9:15 PM which escalated until authorities intervened at 9:38 PM.

"The crowd began to compress towards the front of the stage, and that caused some panic, and it started causing some injuries," Peña explained in a press conference late last night, "People began to fall out, become unconscious, and it created additional panic." The concert was ended shortly after and Day 2 intended to be held Saturday, was cancelled.

 

<iframe width="476" height="267" src="https://abc13.com/video/embed/?pid=11204514" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Video footage and reaction videos from festivalgoers which flooded social media overnight have been called horrific by local news. One video posted to Reddit captures a disheveled audience member calling for the performance to stop while other can be heard telling him to “calm down.” Others like Seanna Faith compared it to “watching a Jenga Tower topple” after one person fell and created a “floor of bodies” trapped under the weight of allegedly unaware attendees. Others like Eric Daniels, who attended with his son, explained in an email to the newspaper:

“The only two visible security guards tried their best to pull people over a security fence as they were being smashed up against it […] People then passed lifeless-limp bodies to paramedics where they tried unsuccessfully to revive four different people. All the while, battling crowds trampling over the bodies lying in the walkway."

<iframe id="reddit-embed" src="https://www.redditmedia.com/r/travisscott/comments/qnvz3r/someone_tries_to_get_crews_attention_to_help/?ref_source=embed&amp;ref=share&amp;embed=true" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups" style="border: none;" height="638" width="640" scrolling="no"></iframe>

The number of attendees transported to hospitals varies depending on source. CBC reported 17 were transported to hospitals, while The New York Times reported 23. Of those transported to the hospital, one was confirmed to be as young as ten years old while 11 were found in a state of cardiac arrest.

300 people were treated on the scene by medics who set up a field hospital at NRG Park. Officials set up a reunification centre at a hotel for family members who had not been able to reach relatives after many separations were caused from the evacuation of the premises.

Larry Satterwhite, the Houston Police Department's executive assistant chief said it "happened all at once[…]Suddenly we had several people down on the ground, experiencing some type of cardiac arrest or some type of medical episode "

"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."

Many details remain unconfirmed including what caused the surge; ABC13 reported the stampede occurred during a surprise appearance from Drake and that of 367 officers initially assigned to ensure the festival as security, only 241 were counted.

Some are questioning the lack of response of the festival’s headliner and founder Travis Scott who continued to perform despite acknowledging ambulances in the crowd: “There’s an ambulance in the crowd, whoa, whoa, whoa.” Video available from the festival’s livestream posted to youtube shows Scott reacting after noticing blue and red flashing lights. “If everybody good, put a middle finger up in the sky,” many raised their phones and fingers as shown by the livestream footage. After two men approach Scott on stage, Scott asks the audience to put two hands to the sky before insisting that they make the ground shake.

The concert went on for 30 minutes after before Travis Scott left the stage, “I love y’all. Make it home safe. Good niiiiiiight!” his final song was “Goosebumps.”

The investigation is ongoing and updates will be provided through SMACK Media’s social.

 

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Trending Now

At least eight people have died at Travis Scott’s sold-out Astroworld festival this weekend in Houston with “scores more injured” according to Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña. Officials described the festival’s attendance of 50,000 as a “crowd surge” that began pushing forward to the stage during Travis Scott’s performance around 9:15 PM which escalated until authorities intervened at 9:38 PM.

"The crowd began to compress towards the front of the stage, and that caused some panic, and it started causing some injuries," Peña explained in a press conference late last night, "People began to fall out, become unconscious, and it created additional panic." The concert was ended shortly after and Day 2 intended to be held Saturday, was cancelled.

 

<iframe width="476" height="267" src="https://abc13.com/video/embed/?pid=11204514" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Video footage and reaction videos from festivalgoers which flooded social media overnight have been called horrific by local news. One video posted to Reddit captures a disheveled audience member calling for the performance to stop while other can be heard telling him to “calm down.” Others like Seanna Faith compared it to “watching a Jenga Tower topple” after one person fell and created a “floor of bodies” trapped under the weight of allegedly unaware attendees. Others like Eric Daniels, who attended with his son, explained in an email to the newspaper:

“The only two visible security guards tried their best to pull people over a security fence as they were being smashed up against it […] People then passed lifeless-limp bodies to paramedics where they tried unsuccessfully to revive four different people. All the while, battling crowds trampling over the bodies lying in the walkway."

<iframe id="reddit-embed" src="https://www.redditmedia.com/r/travisscott/comments/qnvz3r/someone_tries_to_get_crews_attention_to_help/?ref_source=embed&amp;ref=share&amp;embed=true" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups" style="border: none;" height="638" width="640" scrolling="no"></iframe>

The number of attendees transported to hospitals varies depending on source. CBC reported 17 were transported to hospitals, while The New York Times reported 23. Of those transported to the hospital, one was confirmed to be as young as ten years old while 11 were found in a state of cardiac arrest.

300 people were treated on the scene by medics who set up a field hospital at NRG Park. Officials set up a reunification centre at a hotel for family members who had not been able to reach relatives after many separations were caused from the evacuation of the premises.

Larry Satterwhite, the Houston Police Department's executive assistant chief said it "happened all at once[…]Suddenly we had several people down on the ground, experiencing some type of cardiac arrest or some type of medical episode "

"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."

Many details remain unconfirmed including what caused the surge; ABC13 reported the stampede occurred during a surprise appearance from Drake and that of 367 officers initially assigned to ensure the festival as security, only 241 were counted.

Some are questioning the lack of response of the festival’s headliner and founder Travis Scott who continued to perform despite acknowledging ambulances in the crowd: “There’s an ambulance in the crowd, whoa, whoa, whoa.” Video available from the festival’s livestream posted to youtube shows Scott reacting after noticing blue and red flashing lights. “If everybody good, put a middle finger up in the sky,” many raised their phones and fingers as shown by the livestream footage. After two men approach Scott on stage, Scott asks the audience to put two hands to the sky before insisting that they make the ground shake.

The concert went on for 30 minutes after before Travis Scott left the stage, “I love y’all. Make it home safe. Good niiiiiiight!” his final song was “Goosebumps.”

The investigation is ongoing and updates will be provided through SMACK Media’s social.

 

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