He said that at one point, several people in the crowd fell to the ground and began experiencing what he called a medical episode. “It happened all at once,” Larry Satterwhite, the executive assistant chief of the Houston police, said at the news conference. “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.” “I’m sending investigators to the hospitals because we just don’t know,” Chief Finner said. The exact causes of death will be determined by the medical examiner, who is investigating the incident, Chief Peña said.Ĭhief Troy Finner of the Houston Police Department said that many details about the disaster were still unclear, including what had caused the crowd to surge forward.Īn ambulance in the crowd on Friday night. Over 300 people were treated at a “field hospital” at the site, he said.
Twenty-three people were taken to nearby hospitals by emergency responders, Chief Peña said, adding that of those patients, 11 were in cardiac arrest. On Instagram, the event organizers said that they were “supporting local officials however we can” and that the second day of the festival had been canceled. “I am committed to working together with the Houston community to heal and support the families in need.”
“My prayers go out to the families and all those impacted by what happened at Astroworld Festival,” he wrote. Scott said that the Houston Police Department had his “total support” as it investigated the deaths. “Everybody was just in the back, trying to rush to the front.” “It was like hell,” said Nick Johnson, 17, who still had his concert bracelet on as he spoke Saturday morning. About 50,000 people were there on Friday night, according to the Fire Department. The concert was part of the Astroworld music festival, a two-day event that began on Friday. The crowd surge, during a performance by the rapper Travis Scott, “caused some panic, and it started causing some injuries,” the city’s fire chief, Samuel Peña, said Saturday morning. Amy Harris/Invision, via Associated PressĪt least eight people were killed, ranging in age from 14 to 27, and dozens more were injured at a music festival in Houston on Friday night after a large crowd began pushing toward the front of the stage, city officials said at a news conference Saturday afternoon. Video showed crowds amassing earlier in the day, as about 50,000 people attended the festival. Several people died and dozens of others were injured at a Travis Scott concert in Houston, after a large crowd began pushing toward the front of the stage.