At least eight people were killed and numerous injured when a crowd pushed onto a stage at a Houston music festival Friday night, crushing spectators with nowhere to escape, officials said.
About 50,000 people were at the sold out Astroworld Festival outdoors in NRG Park – the stadium complex that houses the Astrodome and NRG Stadium – when the incident occurred shortly after 9:00 p.m. CT, officials said. The video from the event showed the artist on stage – rapper and event organizer Travis Scott – pausing and watching in confusion as an ambulance flashed lights into the crowded crowd.
People there described getting increasingly bruised as Scott's performance approached and then feeling down and seeing others faint and scream in fear as the performance began.
"The crowd crushed me so much that I felt like I couldn't breathe," Emily Munguia, 22, told CNN. "I started screaming for help … I was so scared that I was going to die."
"The amount of people I've seen injured, passed out, bled and cried is insane," Munguia said.
In a statement on Twitter on Saturday morning, festival organizers said, "Our hearts go with the Astroworld Festival family tonight – especially those we have lost and their loved ones," and that they "are focused on helping local officials as best they can ".
The crowd grew thicker over a long period of time, said one officer, who eventually added, “You just feel like you have a weighted blanket around you. The same officer said he was about 15 meters from the stage when "everyone just started pushing forward."
“It was so hard to breathe up there; You just have to wait for it to be pushed back because if it (the crowd) is pushed forward it will likely be pushed back. If you are pushed back, people always fall over, ”he said.
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