BBCSat, 06 Nov 2021 11:44 UTC
Hundreds of people destroyed the VIP security entrance, bypassing the checkpoint
At least eight people have died and scores of people have been hurt after a crowd surge on the opening night of a music festival in Houston, Texas.
Panic broke out after the crowd began to press towards the front of the stage at rapper Travis Scott's Astroworld Festival, emergency officials said.
Eleven people were taken to hospitals in cardiac arrest and eight died. Some casualties are aged as young as 10.About 50,000 people attended the event, which has now been cancelled.
Lina Hidalgo, the county judge of Harris County, described what had happened as an "extremely tragic night".
"Our hearts are broken," she said. "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."
The incident began around 21:15 on Friday (02:15 GMT Saturday), Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peรฑa said.
"The crowd began to compress toward the front of the stage, and people began to panic," he told reporters.
As the crush began causing injuries to people, the panic grew, the official added.
According to the Houston Chronicle, Travis Scott, who founded the festival, stopped multiple times during his 75-minute performance when he spotted fans in distress near the front of the stage.
Rapper Travis Scott continued performing as people died
The rapper asked security to make sure they were okay and help them out of the crowd. Emergency vehicles, lights and alarms flashing, cut through the crowds several times, the paper says.
Amateur video from the concert appears to show fans jumping on an emergency vehicle in the crowd
as the performance continues on stage.Organisers halted the event when it was apparent that many people had been hurt, but
the sheer scale of the casualties quickly overwhelmed the existing medical facilities, the fire chief added.
Fans pressed up against each other near the front of the main stage, eyewitnesses told the Chronicle. In some places,
people were so crammed together that they started hyperventilating or struggling to leave.
"We were hanging on to each other to avoid getting separated," said a male concert-goer. "If you let go, you could easily drift apart."
A female concert-goer told the paper she had never been to a "music festival with so many angry people".Some 300 people were treated for injuries such as cuts and bruises on Friday. Judge Hidalgo said "many" of those killed at the festival had been "tragically young".
A reunification centre has been set up at the Wyndham Houston Hotel for families who have not heard from loved ones at the festival.
Earlier on Friday, hundreds of people had rushed the event's perimeter, knocking down metal detectors and a security screening area to get into the concert, news outlet ABC13 reports.
Saturday was to have been the second and final day of the festival.
"Nobody could dream of this," said Houston Police Department Chief Troy Finner. "But we're here, and I think it's very important that none of us speculate. Nobody has all the answers tonight."
Comment: People dead and screaming for help, yet 'the show must go on'.
Scott is shacked up with really famous person Kylie Jenner, by the way, and she was there that night, 'instagramming' footage of ambulances coming and going...
What could better illustrate the collective descent into madness than such a 'cultural event'.
See also:
UPDATE 7/11/2021: Houston PD made a
statement stating that a security guard reported being pricked in the neck with a needle:
Chief Finner said a security guard working the event felt a prick in his neck by an unknown assailant while he was trying to restrain a citizen -- and he quickly fell unconscious. Finner says the guard was revived by use of NARCAN ... and that medical personnel did, indeed, see something on his neck that indicated he'd been stabbed with a syringe.
Finner also said some people had been trampled, so it appears there was a mix of reasons why people were injured/passing out ... and perhaps why some died. The total number of people who've passed away remains at 8, and autopsies are underway to determine the causes of death for each.
TMZ
reported:
What many will be looking for here is whether there's any evidence to suggest the 8 people who've died thus far might've been triggered into cardiac arrest via outside influence or a third party ... namely, a would-be culprit who was allegedly going around and injecting folks with a syringe.
More videos are coming out from the event. One, in particular, shows people dancing on an emergency vehicle that was trying to make its way through the crowd:
Another shows multiple people receiving CPR on the scene:
UPDATE 8/11/2021: Families of those killed in the chaos and concertgoers who say they were injured in the crowd have filed more than
40 lawsuits against the performer and Astroworld organizers. Attorneys from Kherkher Garcia LLP said in a
statement that "Scott has a history of inciting violence and creating dangerous conditions for concertgoers".
Souza, who "suffered serious bodily injuries when the uncontrolled crowd at the concert knocked him to the ground and trampled him" is filing a lawsuit which states: "
Scott actively encourages his fans to 'rage' at his concerts. His express encouragement of violence has previously resulted in serious violence at numerous past concerts." NBC goes on to explain:
In 2017, Scott was arrested after he encouraged fans to bypass security and rush the stage โ which he often does โ leaving a security guard, a police officer and several others injured during a concert in Arkansas. Scott pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and had to pay more than $6,000 to two people injured at the show, according to The Los Angeles Times.
In a separate incident, he was sentenced to one year of court supervision after pleading guilty to reckless conduct charges stemming from a 2015 incident in Chicago at the Lollapalooza music festival.
Social media posts and a concert video from 2015 have resurfaced following the incident:
Scott made a public
statement saying he was "devastated by what took place". He has also offered to refund all tickets,
pay for the funerals of the deceased, and has partnered with an online therapy company that is offering one free month of therapy to concert-goers...
UPDATE 12/11/2021: In a recent public
statement, Houston police backtracked on the claim that a security guard was pricked in the neck at the concert, potentially with drugs. Police chief Finner
said that they had located the security guard and interviewed him.
"He says he was struck in his head, he went unconscious and he woke up in the security tent. He says that no one injected drugs into him. So we want to clear that part up."
Comment: People dead and screaming for help, yet 'the show must go on'.
Scott is shacked up with really famous person Kylie Jenner, by the way, and she was there that night, 'instagramming' footage of ambulances coming and going...
What could better illustrate the collective descent into madness than such a 'cultural event'.
See also:
- History and psychology predict protests and riots after lockdowns
- Weekend of gun violence in Chicago: 7 killed, 41 injured including 3-year-old boy
UPDATE 7/11/2021: Houston PD made a statement stating that a security guard reported being pricked in the neck with a needle: TMZ reported: More videos are coming out from the event. One, in particular, shows people dancing on an emergency vehicle that was trying to make its way through the crowd:Another shows multiple people receiving CPR on the scene:
UPDATE 8/11/2021: Families of those killed in the chaos and concertgoers who say they were injured in the crowd have filed more than 40 lawsuits against the performer and Astroworld organizers. Attorneys from Kherkher Garcia LLP said in a statement that "Scott has a history of inciting violence and creating dangerous conditions for concertgoers".
Souza, who "suffered serious bodily injuries when the uncontrolled crowd at the concert knocked him to the ground and trampled him" is filing a lawsuit which states: "Scott actively encourages his fans to 'rage' at his concerts. His express encouragement of violence has previously resulted in serious violence at numerous past concerts." NBC goes on to explain: Social media posts and a concert video from 2015 have resurfaced following the incident:
Scott made a public statement saying he was "devastated by what took place". He has also offered to refund all tickets, pay for the funerals of the deceased, and has partnered with an online therapy company that is offering one free month of therapy to concert-goers...
UPDATE 12/11/2021: In a recent public statement, Houston police backtracked on the claim that a security guard was pricked in the neck at the concert, potentially with drugs. Police chief Finner said that they had located the security guard and interviewed him. "He says he was struck in his head, he went unconscious and he woke up in the security tent. He says that no one injected drugs into him. So we want to clear that part up."