Astroworld Festival – latest: Police launch criminal probe as Travis Scott promises to help victims’ families

Follow the latest updates

At least 8 dead, several others injured during Astroworld music festival, officials say

Travis Scott and the organisers of the Astroworld event that left eight people dead have been sued by an injured concertgoer who branded it a “predictable and preventable tragedy.”

Lawyers for Manuel Souza filed a petition in Harris County District Court suing Scott, event organiser ScoreMore and concert giant Live Nation over the Friday night incident, according to Billboard.

At least two investigations are now underway into the deadly stampede which took placed at the opening night of the Astroworld music festival in Houston, Texas.

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

Officials said a 14-year-old was among the victims, and that a security guard may have been injected with drugs as the chaos unfolded.

The mayor of Houston has vowed to “leave [no] stone unturned” in investigating the disaster, while Mr Scott said in a message to fans that he is “absolutely devastated.”

Livestreamed footage of the event showed the rapper pausing his performance as an ambulance arrived at the venue, NRG Park.

Follow latest updates below:

Key Points

• Eight people died in a mass casualty incident at Astroworld Music Festival
• Over 300 people were tried in a field hospital set up at the event
• 17 people are being treated in hospital with 11 suffering cardiac arrest
• Astroworld: 14-year-old youngest victim of deadly crowd surge at Travis Scott concert
• Security guard may have been injected with drugs

[8 November 2021 01:01 · Graeme Massie]

‘We were literally partying in a graveyard'

ICYMI: We are now learning more about just how the crowd crush unfolded, and it isn’t good. While authorities became fully aware of the problem at 9:30pm, evidence is mounting that it started much earlier.

Madeline Eskins, an ICU nurse who was attending the concert as a guest, told the Washington Post that the atmosphere began to change at 8:50pm, just before Mr Scott took the stage. Squeezed and shoved into an ever-tighter space, she passed out about 25 minutes later.

When she woke up around 9:30pm, she says, she saw many other people "in pretty bad shape", with some lacking a pulse and others receiving CPR or shocks from a defibrillator. “As an ICU nurse, we have organised procedures in place when people go into cardiac arrest. But this was hell," she said.

Alana Stevenson, 20, said that within the first few songs of Mr Scott’s set people were "really basically screaming bloody murder, asking for help", and struggling to get free, sometimes knocking each other out but not realising that there was "nowhere for anyone to go".

She said: “We were literally partying in a graveyard. There was dead bodies and people kept going.”

When rescue carts tried to inch their way through the thick crowd, some people climbed up on them and danced on them. Desmond Gary, 25, told the Post: "It kind of just turned into like, World War Three out there, like people literally fighting for their lives.”

All of this came before 9:30pm.

[8 November 2021 00:35 · Io Dodds]

'It was primal instinct: I had to get out'

Since last night, people who were in the crowd have come forward to describe their experiences as mass excitement and a desire to get closer to the stage turned into escalating panic and confinement.

“It was like a ripple effect. One person pushed, and everyone went,” 25-year-old Gerardo Abad Garcia from Denver told The LA Times.

“There was like no airflow in there. It was just like primal instinct: I had to get out.”

“You kept going forward, backward – you couldn’t move,” said Julian Ponce, 21, a psychology student at the University of Texas San Antonio.

Renecca Kallabat, 26, said “it felt like life or death the whole time we were in the crowd”.

In one chilling clip taken from the official Apple Music live stream, someone can be heard screaming “help us!” repeatedly in the background (warning: the audio is disturbing).

Another concertgoer, Jake Scampini, told The Washington Post: “I started freaking out. I thought I was going to pass out. I had to breathe out of my nose because I had an arm around my throat and my mouth.”

[8 November 2021 00:15 · Graeme Massie]

Houston PD says Astroworld investigation ‘very active'

The police department posted a statement on Twitter that said the investigation “remains very active and is in its early stages.

“Our prayers remain with the families affected by this tragic event,” the statement said.

[8 November 2021 00:02 · Graeme Massie]

Fan posts video of Travis Scott stopping show

A fan called “wholelottajustin” posted video on TikTok of Travis Scott pausing his set to point out a fan that had passed out in front of him.

@wholelottajustin

Travis actually stopped the show several times since security was garb, they were even dancing around. ##astroworldfestival ##travisscott ##astroworld

♬ original sound - justin ?

[7 November 2021 23:17 · Graeme Massie]

Travis Scott sued for ‘predictable and preventable’ Astroworld tragedy

Travis Scott and the organisers of the Astroworld event that left eight people dead have been sued by an injured concertgoer who branded it a “predictable and preventable tragedy.”

Lawyers for Manuel Souza filed a petition in Harris County District Court suing Scott, event organiser ScoreMore and concert giant Live Nation over the Friday night incident.

The lawsuit claims the tragedy was the result of “a motivation for profit at the expense of concertgoers’ health and safety” and the “encouragement of violence,” according to Billboard.

[7 November 2021 22:54 · Graeme Massie]

Astroworld memorial grows in Houston

A memorial to the Astroworld victims has grown in Houston on Sunday. Mourners hugged each other and left floral tributes to the eight people who were killed in the crush at the Travis Scott even on Friday.

(AP)

(AP)

(AP)

[6 November 2021 08:09 · Thomas Kingsley]

Welcome

Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s blog following updates from the Astroworld music festival where at least people have died following a crowd surge.

Follow the latest updates on the incident.