RAPPER, Travis Scott, has released a video saying he was “devastated” by the recent incident at his Astroworld concert, where eight fans died and dozens were injured.
The festival which was held in Texas on Friday saw a tampede of fans surging toward the stage during the rapper’s set as panic rippled through the crowd of largely young concertgoers, officials said.
City Police Chief Troy Finner said his department has opened a criminal investigation by homicide and narcotics detectives following unconfirmed reports that someone in the audience “was injecting other people with drugs.”
The disaster unfolded at NRG Park at around 9:30 p.m. on Friday during the headline performance by Scott, a Grammy-nominated singer and producer, following what police and members of the crowd described as an escalation of unruly behaviour throughout the day.
As fans in the sold-out audience of about 50,000 pressed toward the stage, people began to fall unconscious some apparently suffering cardiac arrest or other medical issues, officials told reporters outside the venue. Minutes later the chaos was declared a “mass casualty incident.”
Twenty-five people were taken to hospitals by ambulance after the crush began, some of them in cardiac arrest, with 13 still hospitalized on Saturday – five under age 18 – following the discharge of four patients, Mayor Sylvester Turner told reporters.
Eight people died. Most ranged in age from 14 to 27, though one victim’s age was not immediately known, Turner said.
SABC