The chaos is said to have occurred at the Astroworld festival in Houston, organized by the American rapper Travis Scott, when the rapper himself was on stage.
– This is a tragic night, says fire chief Samuel Peña at a press conference on Saturday morning Norwegian time.
According to Peña, chaos and panic must have broken out when the audience began to push themselves towards the stage around 21.15 on Friday night. In the ensuing tribulation, several people are said to have been trampled and crushed to death.
– This led to panic, and caused some injuries. People fell, became unconscious, and this led to further panic, the fire chief said at a press conference on Saturday morning.
Houston police officer Larry Satterwhite tells NBC News that he was standing near the stage when the chaos occurred. He says the situation escalated rapidly.
– It seems as if this happened in just a few minutes. Suddenly we had several people who fell to the ground with cardiac arrest or some form of malaise. We immediately started with cardiopulmonary resuscitation, he says.
URBAN PANIC: The audience is said to have pushed themselves towards the stage when the American rapper Travis Scott had a concert on Friday night. Photo: Amy Harris / Invision / AP / NTB
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Many injured
In addition to the fact that eight people have died, several more are also injured, writes among others ABC 13.
Several representatives of local authorities in Houston confirm the deaths on Saturday morning, according to the news agency AFP.
According to NBC News, more than 300 people have received treatment at a field hospital in the festival area. 23 people have been transported to hospital.
Eleven people had cardiac arrest when they were taken to hospital by ambulance, the channel writes.
50,000 present
According to American media, the music festival was sold out, and around 50,000 people were present on Friday night when the music festival went off the rails for the third year in a row.
There must also have been similar conditions earlier Friday, when several people stormed towards the entrance to the festival, writes KPRC of Houston, according to NBC. Several people are said to have been injured in the crowd.
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