Authorities in Texas opened a criminal investigation Saturday into a tragedy in which the crowd at a huge Travis Scott rap concert surged toward the stage in a crush that killed eight people and sent dozens to the hospital.
Around 50,000 people were in the audience at Houston’s NRG Park Friday night when the crowd started pushing toward the stage as Scott was performing, triggering chaotic scenes.
“People were being pushed, people were being trampled, and then as I fought my way out of there, I saw people on the ground,” Logan Morris, a Dallas native who was at the show, told AFP.
Raul Marquez, 24, said he saw a lot of drinking and drug use in the crowd.
“And they got hot and just dancing and it all caved in and just, they couldn’t breathe, and passed out left and right,” he said.
“Some people didn’t care and just stomped on them or ignored them. It was intense,” Marquez said.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner told reporters Saturday afternoon that the crush left eight people dead, from ages 14 to 27, with one person’s age unknown. The chaos also resulted in 25 people being transported to the hospital, including 13 who were still there.
Turner said that authorities are looking at video footage, talking to witnesses, concert organizers and people who were hospitalized.
“This is a very, very active investigation, and we will probably be at it for quite some time to determine what exactly happened,” he said.
The criminal investigation will involve both homicide and narcotics detectives, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner told reporters.
Houston is known for staging high-profile events, but the city had never experienced anything “of this magnitude that any of us can recall,” Turner added.
More than 300 people were treated on the scene for minor injuries in the first night of the two-day Astroworld Festival, which Scott helped organize, authorities said.
Scott halted his act several times when he saw fans in distress near the stage.
