‘There’s someone dead in there!’: Videos show Astroworld concertgoers climbing camera tower to beg for help

In one clip a young woman and a young man are audible screaming at a camera operator, who attempts to shoo them away

Footage has emerged of terrified festival-goers at Astroworld Festival in Houston, Texas, clambering on top of a camera platform and begging staff members to stop the show as the deadly crush was unfolding in the crowd below.

Videos circulating on TikTok and Twitter show a young woman and a young man climbing up a ladder to a platform and shouting at the camera operator to intervene, but to no avail.

“There’s someone dead in there! There is someone dead!" the woman, later identified as 22-year-old Seanna Faith McCarty, is heard screams desperately as she points to the crowd below.

A young man, identified as 18-year-old Ayden Cruz, is then seen scaling the ladder and repeatedly shouting “stop the show”.

Their desperate pleas were in vain as the operator seems to ignore them, shooing them away and returning to focus on his camera.

At one point, a security guard joins the platform and also ushers the panicked festival-goers away.

Ms McCarty later shared her harrowing experience in an Instagram post, recalling how the crowd began to “drown” in bodies.

Other videos posted online showed people in the crowd chanting "stop the show! Stop the show!"

It is unclear when exactly these incidents happened amid the chaos.

The Washington Post reported that at about 9.35pm, concert-goers climbed up a ladder onto a camera riser and tried to get an operator’s attention.

At least two investigations are now underway into the deadly stampede in Houston, Texas, which killed eight people and injured hundreds.

A sold-out headline show by rapper and festival organiser Travis Scott turned deadly when guests began pushing towards the front of the stage, crushing some and reportedly leaving them unable to breathe.

A 14-year-old high school freshman and aspiring baseball player was among the victims who died in the tragedy.

Police said they are also investigating reports that a security guard may have been injected with drugs as the chaos unfolded.

Ms McCarty wrote on Instagram on Friday night that she had begged for help from a camera operator, a guard, and an emergency dispatcher as guests were caught in the vice.

“Today is November 5th, 2021. It is a Friday. Who I am in this story is not important, rather it is important the things I have now witnessed. Astroworld, Houston, Texas,” she wrote.

“Travis Scott is the only one performing. I don’t know how many people were at the festival, but I do know that every single person was at that stage. My friend and I wanted to be close to the stage - as close as we could possibly get. We were not able to get very close, but we did end up on the side, near the walkway in the middle.”

She told how “within the first 30 seconds” of Mr Scott taking to the stage, people “began to drown - in other people”.

(Reuters)

“Surrounding us were chest-high metal gates. “Barriers.” We stood there for two hours, as did every other person. Every gap was filled, where your feet were placed was where they stayed. Energy rose as the time neared - beginning the show,” she said.

“Within the first 30 seconds of the first song, people began to drown - in other people. There were so many people. Tall men, women. Women and men where the only thing they could see was the back of the person in front of them. The rush of people became tighter and tighter.”

"More and more people began to scream for help; some began to collapse. The music continued.... the screaming intensified as more people realised they could not breathe,” she said.

Ms McCarty continued to describe the crush where “breathing became something only a few were capable of” and her friend was swept from her in the crowd.

When one person fell, she said it was “like watching a Jenga Tower topple” and she ended up on a “floor of bodies”.

“There was a floor of bodies, of men and women, below two layers of fallen people above them,” she said.

Ms McCarty revealed how she somehow managed to pull herself out of the crowd and get to the camera platform, climbing up the ladder to try to find help.

"We begged security to help us, for the performer to see us and know something was wrong. None of that came...

"I saw the cameraman, eyes glued to the stage, elevated on a platform. A platform that looked directly into the crowd. I climbed the ladder and pointed, telling him people were dying. He told me to get off the platform and continued filming.

"I screamed over and over again. he wouldn’t even look in the direction, so I pushed the camera so it pointed towards where I had just come from. He became angry... he called someone else up. I told him the same thing.

"I was in disbelief. Here were two people that could actually do something, had the power to do something. Cut the camera, call in backup, pause something. They did nothing."

Seanna Faith McCarty later shared her harrowing experience in an Instagram post, recalling how the crowd began to “drown” in bodies (INSTAGRAM)

The survivor went on to explain that the crowd also began to “boo” her as she tried to draw attention to what was happening in the crowd.

Eventually, she said she found medics and directed them to people in need. She confirmed that her friend was okay following the incident.

In a follow-up post, Ms McCarty said she “does not place blame on the cameraman” but recognises that he “is human”.

She shared screenshots of messages apparently from the cameraman’s wife saying he “is devastated people lost their life” and has been receiving death threats.