Rapper Travis Scott said Saturday he is “absolutely devastated by what took place” on Friday night, when at least eight people died at the Astroworld music festival in Houston. Officials said “scores of individuals” were also injured after a crowd surge at the festival, which Scott founded three years ago.
The “mass casualty incident” occurred after 9 p.m. when a crowd began to “compress” toward the front of the stage, “and that caused some panic, and it started causing some injuries,” Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña said early Saturday at a press conference.
“People began to fall out, become unconscious, and it created additional panic,” he said.
A source close to Astroworld told CBS News police are looking into a drug spiking incident in a targeted area of the festival — a targeted attack on innocent people, including a child. The crowd surge was from panic because people were running for safety, the source said.
Seventeen people were taken to the hospital, including 11 in cardiac arrest. Peña said authorities won’t know the cause of the eight deaths until the medical examiner has completed his investigation.
About 50,000 people attended the music event on Friday, the first night of a two-day festival. The surge happened while Travis Scott was on-stage.
“At some point, the show was stopped, when the crowd was surging,” said Peña.
The event ended early, and the second day of the festival has been canceled.
Scott, 29, founded the Astroworld Festival in 2018. The Houston native has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards. He has a daughter with Kylie Jenner, and the couple announced in September they are expecting their second child.
Contributing: The Associated Press
